HPV and COVID-19 vaccines:  Social media use, confidence, and intentions among parents living in different community types in the United States

Abstract

Our study measured parental confidence and intention/uptake of two adolescent vaccines (HPV and COVID-19), focusing on differences among community types including urban, suburban, and rural. Although social media provides a way for misinformation to spread, it remains a viable forum for countering misinformation and engaging parents with positive vaccine information across community types. Yet, little is understood about differences in social media use and vaccine attitudes and behaviors for parents living in rural, suburban and urban areas. We sought to determine how to better reach parents living in different community types with targeted social media channels and messaging. In August 2021, we used a cross-sectional survey programmed in Qualtrics to collect data from 452 parents of children ages 9 to 14 living in different community types across the United States. Participants came from a survey panel maintained by CloudResearch. Survey questions asked about demographics, political affiliation, community type, social media use, health and vaccine information sources, and attitudes and behaviors regarding the HPV and COVID-19 vaccines. Our sample of parents (n = 452) most frequently used Facebook (76%), followed by YouTube (55%), and Instagram (43%). When comparing social media use by community type, parents used the top platforms at similar rates. Social media use was associated with vaccine confidence and intention/uptake in unadjusted models but not in adjusted models. Further, there were no significant differences in HPV vaccine confidence or intention/uptake by community type (i.e., rural, suburban, urban). For the COVID-19 vaccine, parents in rural communities were less likely to have vaccine confidence and intention/uptake in the unadjusted model. For both HPV and COVID-19 vaccines, political affiliation was the only common factor associated with both vaccine confidence and intention/uptake. Parents who identified as Democrat compared to Republican had greater confidence in the vaccines and had higher odds of vaccine intention/uptake for their children. Although rurality has been associated with vaccine confidence in the past we did not find that in our study. Instead, political affiliation appeared to explain most of the variation in vaccine confidence and intention/uptake, suggesting that more research is needed to identify best practices for using social media to reach parents with different political beliefs.

Broad perspectives in understanding vaccine hesitancy and vaccine confidence: an introduction to the special issue

“…The remaining four articles in this section cover different aspects of social media influences on vaccine hesitancy and confidence. Manganello et al ( 2023 ) examined COVID-19 and HPV vaccination attitudes and behaviors, with a particular focus on community type (i.e., rural, suburban, urban). Based on a survey of U.S. parents of children ages 9–14 years, they found that social media use was associated with vaccine confidence/intention/uptake, but only in unadjusted models.…”

HPV and HBV vaccine hesitancy, intention, and uptake in the era of social media and COVID-19: A review

“…Although intention to vaccinate one’s child against HPV was measured, it was not examined as a predictor of COVID-19 vaccination intentions. In the second study, performed in August 2021, Manganello and colleagues (2022) conducted a survey of 452 parents of children aged 9-14 years living in different communities across the United States. Among parents who would be likely to vaccinate their child against COVID-19, 75% would also be likely to vaccinate their child against HPV.…”

The partisan pandemic: Applying the reasoned action approach to understand the effects of politicizing a public health crisis

“…Limited research, however, has tested both background variables together as part of the RAA mechanism. There have been studies testing the predictive power of both political ideology and media use (e.g., Manganello et al, 2023;Zhu et al, 2023) on behavioral outcomes, however these studies are rarely deliberatively housed in the RAA. In the present research, we tested the roles of political ideology and one particular kind of media use, news consumption, as part of the RAA process in a novel health context of Covid-19.…”