Parents’ health views in the United States influence their children’s HPV vaccination decisions. The researchers learned about moms’ health opinions by seeing and commenting on postings about HPV vaccination in a social media teen health campaign in a randomised experiment assessing communication aimed at reducing daughters’ indoor tanning. A total of ten HPV vaccination messages in didactic and narrative formats were posted on the necessity for, uptake of, and efficacy of vaccination, as well as stories of young women who died from cervical cancer and a mother’s choice to vaccinate her daughters. There were 28 responses and 80 comments on these postings. There were more positive comments than negative comments. Data on post views was not gathered. The most common positive response was that the girls had been immunised. Unfavorable responses highlighted safety concerns, a lack of medical support, scepticism of pro-vaccine sources, and increasing sexual activity among daughters. Mothers who posted critical rather than good remarks or who did not comment were less likely to have had their daughters immunised. 

Favorable remarks did not always indicate why people should be vaccinated. Concerns regarding vaccination safety continue to be an impediment. Mothers may express scepticism toward pro-vaccine sites in order to alleviate their anxiety with not vaccinating their daughters to minimise their chance of HPV infection. Many of the moms who stayed silent had vaccinated daughters, implying that they did not object to HPV vaccination.

Reference:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2019.1581555

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