Challenges and opportunities of school-based HPV vaccination in Canada

Abstract

Primary prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV) through vaccination is a high priority in Canada's cancer prevention efforts. All Canadian provinces and territories have introduced publicly funded, school-based vaccination programs against HPV, but vaccine uptake remains suboptimal in some jurisdictions. We conducted a descriptive qualitative study to better understand the determinants of low HPV vaccine uptake and identify strategies to enhance vaccine acceptance using the socioecological model. In Quebec, interviews and focus groups were held in 2015-2016 with 70 key informants including immunization managers, school nurses, school principals, teachers and parents of Grade 4 students (9 years of age).Our findings showed that HPV vaccine uptake was dependent on many interrelated factors at the individual and interpersonal level (e.g. knowledge and attitudes of the different players involved in the vaccination system), at the community level (e.g. social group values and norms, media coverage around the HPV vaccine), at the organizational level (e.g. allocated resources, information provision, consent process, immunization setting and environment) and at the policy level (e.g. changes in provincial HPV vaccine program). We are using the data collection and interpretation tools and approaches developed by our team and used in Quebec to expand our study to four other provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia). We are conducting environmental scans, semi-structured interviews and a survey to better understand the determinants of low HPV vaccine uptake and identify strategies to enhance vaccine acceptance. Having an in-depth understanding of the determinants of HPV vaccination in school settings is critical in order to identify root causes of the suboptimal vaccine uptake and to develop tailored interventions to address these on both supply-and demand-side issues.

Practice and Associated Factors of Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among Primary School Students in Minjar-Shenkora District, North Shoa Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia, 2020

“…This is supported by the study conducted in Uganda. The finding was also inline with a qualitative study in Canada showing that at the individual and interpersonal level, the most frequently invoked barrier was negative attitudes toward the HPV vaccine 28 whereas A cross-sectional study in China showed that attitude predictors, agreed that "HPV vaccines can effectively prevent cervical cancer" was found to be positively associated with HPV vaccination. 29 Most of the female students (85%) have had exposure to information regarding the human papillomavirus and HPV vaccine, which is much higher than the nationwide survey study conducted in Malaysia in 2016 where only 50.8% of respondents reported having heard information about the HPV vaccine.…”

Social media and vaccine hesitancy: new updates for the era of COVID-19 and globalized infectious diseases

“…2,21 Users' baseline personal values and biases prior to their exposure to social media content, such as ethno-cultural, religious, or political beliefs, may modulate their response to such posts. 23,60,61 Helge et al conducted an study in which 400 participants with differing opinions regarding the flu vaccination were organized into 3-link experimental diffusion chains. 62 This study assessed how information is conveyed, perceived, and altered between links and found that participants would largely alter messages to align with their baseline attitude.…”

“ It takes time to build trust ”: a survey Ontario’s school-based HPV immunization program ten years post-implementation

“…The survey was developed based on a previous study conducted in the province of Quebec and tools used in the multi-jurisdictional project on HPV vaccination in schools in Canada. 8,9 Three reminders were sent by e-mail to optimize the response rate of PHUs. The Ethics Review Boards of the CHU de Québec -Université Laval and Public Health Ontario approved this study.…”

“…As part of a multi-jurisdictional project on HPV vaccination in schools in Canada, 8 the objective of our study was to describe the HPV vaccination program in Ontario from the perspective of local PHU Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) managers to help elucidate the drivers and barriers of HPV vaccine acceptance and uptake in the province.…”