For a study, researchers examined the predictors of HPV vaccine uptake in a nationally representative sample of people aged 18–26. The 2014 and 2015 National Health Interview Surveys (n=7588) were used to identify young patients aged 18–26 years. The sociodemographic characteristics related to HPV vaccination start (≥1 dose) and completion (≥3 doses) were assessed using survey-weighted multivariable logistic regression models. Around 27% of research participants had started the HPV vaccination, and 16% had finished it. Participants who were men [(adjusted OR) 0.19; (95% CI 0.16–0.23], had a high school education (0.40; 0.31–0.52) or less (0.46; 0.32–0.64) vs. college graduates, and were born outside the United States (0.52; 0.40–0.69) were less likely to begin the vaccination. Participants were more likely to start the HPV vaccination if they had visited the doctor’s office 1–5 times (2.09; 1.56–2.81) or 6 times (1.86; 1.48–2.34) in the previous 12 months compared to no visits. The odds of completing HPV vaccination uptake followed the same trend as the odds of initiating it. After stratifying the research sample by gender and foreign-born status, these characteristics remained statistically significant.

In the nationally representative survey, just one out of every six 18–26-year-olds received all of the recommended vaccination doses. Men, those with a high school diploma or less, and people born outside the United States were less likely to start and finish the HPV vaccine. The findings showed that developing tailored strategies to promote HPV vaccination among people in the catch-up age would be beneficial.

Reference:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2018.1467203