Perception about barriers and facilitators of the school-based HPV vaccine program of Manizales, Colombia: A qualitative study in school-enrolled girls and their parents

Abstract

In 2012, Colombia implemented a school-based HPV vaccination program of a 3-dose series for nine year old girls. Following a mass psychogenic response after vaccination in a Colombian town, vaccination rates dropped from 80% in 2012–2013 to 5% in 2016. The study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators of HPV vaccine uptake among girls eligible for vaccination in the initial years of vaccine implementation from 2012 to 2014, and their parents. We conducted 19 individual qualitative interviews and 18 focus groups with an average of 5 girls, in Manizales, Colombia between 2016 and 2017. In total, 49 girls from six schools and 58 of their parents participated in the study. Participants had some degree of awareness about cervical cancer, especially among those of middle and upper socioeconomic level. However, the vaccine was known as a prevention measure only after pap-smears and condoms. The main facilitator for vaccine uptake for parents was the desire to prevent diseases in general and for girls, it was facilitated by receiving positive information about the vaccine. The main barriers for vaccine uptake or for three doses completion were the event in Carmen de Bolivar, fear of adverse effects and fear of needles. Girls and parents stated that they received little or no information from schools or health care services about the HPV vaccine prior to vaccination. Our results suggest that improving HPV vaccination rates in Colombia will require a comprehensive education program including mass media information about HPV vaccine.

Women’s knowledge and attitudes towards cervical cancer prevention: A qualitative study in the Spanish context

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Covid-19 vaccines: A model of acceptance behavior in the healthcare sector

“…In this sense, various studies have shown that fear of a disease positively affects acceptance of a vaccine to prevent it ( Anraad et al ., 2020 ; Nguyen et al ., 2020 ; Patil et al , 2020 ). Likewise, fear of vaccine side effects has been shown to be an important and significant deterrent to deciding to get vaccinated ( Abebe et al , 2019 ; Anraad et al ., 2020 ; Cordoba-Sanchez et al ., 2019 ; Kyaw et al ., 2019 ; Maltezou et al , 2019 ; Nguyen et al ., 2020 ; Otieno et al ., 2020 ), with fear of short-term and permanent side effects influencing behavior differently ( Borena et al , 2016 ). In keeping with these findings, the following hypotheses regarding the impact of fear on vaccine acceptance are proposed:…”

Sexual behaviour, human papillomavirus and its vaccine: a qualitative study of adolescents and parents in Andalusia

“…The qualitative approach to HPV vaccination from the perspective of adolescent girls and their parents has been studied by different authors, focusing on the reasons that lead to accepting or refusing the vaccine. These investigations mention as some of the reasons that influence vaccine refusal, a lack of information from parents about the risks and consequences of HPV infection, fear of vaccine safety as well as doubts about its efficacy, and the belief that daughters were too young to be sexually active [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. According to these studies, parents were more motivated to have their children vaccinated when the recommendation came from an authority, when they received advice from their health professionals, and when they had a strong desire to prevent illness in their daughters [16,18,19,24].…”