Attitudes towards human papillomavirus vaccination among Arab ethnic minority in Denmark: A qualitative study

Abstract

Educational programs should target both mothers and daughters because mothers have an inadequate knowledge about HPV. This is likely to bridge the gap of knowledge between mothers and daughters, which constitutes a barrier between the generations.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions of Immigrant Parents Towards Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination: A Systematic Review

“…Twelve studies were conducted in the USA, three in the UK, one in the Netherlands, one in Denmark, one in Sweden, and one in Puerto Rico. Six studies were conducted in community organizations including faith-based centres like churches and mosques [21][22][23][24][25][26], eight in health and social service agencies [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], two in schools and/or community groups [35,36], another two in social clubs [37,38], and one in a household [39].…”

“…Of the 19 studies, 16 reported on knowledge of the immigrant parents about HPV vaccine (Table 2), 13 reported their attitudes (Table 3) and 10 recorded perceptions (as defined by study author) towards HPV vaccine (Table 4). Four studies reported knowledge and attitudes [21,27,30,37] and one reported knowledge and perceptions [26], seven studies reported on all three outcomes (knowledge, attitude and perceptions) [22,23,29,35,36,38,39].…”

“…For knowledge, the level of parents' knowledge about HPV disease and HPV vaccine ranged from no knowledge in 11 studies [21][22][23][24]26,27,29,33,35,37,39] to limited knowledge regarding HPV and HPV vaccine, as they heard about the vaccine but they did not know HPV vaccine's purpose, the eligibility requirements for the vaccine, and the vaccine's dosing/schedule requirements in three studies. Five studies revealed that some participants had not heard of HPV disease or HPV vaccine [27,33,35,39].…”

“…There were four studies that reported participants had no prior knowledge of HPV as a sexually transmitted disease or as a cause of cancer [25,30,32]. In four studies, participants described a lack of information and knowledge about the purpose of HPV vaccination, and HPV transmission [21,29,37]. Two studies found participants had limited knowledge regarding the relation between sexual transmission of HPV and cervical cancer [22,36] (Table 2).…”

“…In regards to attitudes towards HPV disease and HPV vaccine (Table 3), a number of non-vaccinating ethnic minority parents had negative attitudes to HPV vaccination thinking it would encourage unsafe sexual practices and promiscuity [22,30,35]. However, three studies showed that once parents were informed about the vaccine during the focus groups, they became keen to vaccinate their children [34,36,37]. Non-vaccinating and partially vaccinating parents from various ethnic backgrounds expressed concerns about potential side effects [35]; religious values and cultural norms also influenced vaccine decision-making [28,29], and a majority of participants (regardless of vaccination status) had a more positive attitude towards vaccination when they received information about HPV vaccine (Table 3).…”