Abstract
Background: Vaccination rates against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in the US remain alarmingly low. Physicians can significantly influence a parent's decision to vaccinate their children. However, medical education often lacks training on specific strategies for communicating with vaccine hesitant parents. Methods: We created an innovative curriculum designed to teach medical students how to address HPV vaccine hesitancy. The curriculum consisted of (1) a presentation on the epidemiology, biology, and disease morbidity associated with HPV, (2) a video that teaches specific communication strategies and (3) role-playing simulations. This curriculum was delivered to medical students at two separate sites. Medical students were surveyed before and after completing the educational curriculum. The surveys assessed student comfort talking to HPV vaccine hesitant parents and their likelihood to recommend the HPV vaccine. Results: Pre- and post-intervention surveys were completed by 101 of the 132 participants (77% response rate). After the intervention, student awareness of the benefits of the HPV vaccine increased by a mean of 0.82 points (Likert scale 1–5, p < 0.01) and student comfort talking to vaccine hesitant parents increased by a mean of 1.37 points (p < 0.01). Prior to the intervention, students more strongly recommended the HPV vaccine to females compared to males, but this gender disparity was eliminated after the intervention (p < 0.01). Personal vaccination status was independately associated with a higher likelihood of recommending the HPV vaccine both before and after the intervention. Conclusion: Our innovative curriculum improved medical student comfort level discussing HPV vaccination with hesitant parents and increased the perceived likelihood of recommending HPV vaccination. The intervention is easy to implement, scalable, and requires minimal resources. Educating future providers on this important topic has the potential to improve vaccination rates nationwide and thus should be considered for all medical students.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3830-3835 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Vaccine |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 26 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 18 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by Hub and Spoke Initiative Focused on Improving HPV Rates, AAP Chapter MN, ND, SD. Research support in this publication to KMT was supported by NIH grant P30 CA77598 utilizing the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core shared resource of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota and by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health Award Number UL1TR000114 . Research support to BKE was from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K12HD055887 . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health .
Funding Information:
This work was supported by Hub and Spoke Initiative Focused on Improving HPV Rates, AAP Chapter MN, ND, SD. Research support in this publication to KMT was supported by NIH grant P30 CA77598 utilizing the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core shared resource of the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota and by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health Award Number UL1TR000114. Research support to BKE was from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K12HD055887. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- C.A.S.E. method
- Curriculum
- HPV vaccine
- Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
- Medical education
- Vaccine hesitancy
