Strength of belief: Religious commitment, knowledge, and HPV vaccination adherence

Abstract

Objective Human papillomavirus (HPV) infects millions of men and women annually and is a substantial contributing factor in many cancers including oral, penile, anal, and cervical. Vaccination can reduce risk but adherence nationwide and, particularly in highly religious states, is suboptimal. Religious principles of abstinence before marriage and total fidelity following marriage may create a belief of protection through adherence to religious guidelines. However, while one partner may remain monogamous, one cannot be assured of their partner's behavior both before and after marriage. These misconceptions may create a barrier to religious youth's adherence to vaccine recommendations. Methods We sampled single young adults, age 18 to 25 years, from a Christian university classified as highly religious and a university not categorized as highly religious. Results Highly religious young adults demonstrated low knowledge of HPV and HPV vaccination. High religious beliefs were associated with lower HPV vaccination adherence. Conclusions Understanding the role religious beliefs have on vaccine adherence can help in the creation of campaigns that specifically address these issues. Campaigns to increase vaccination should address misconceptions of religious youth's feelings of imperviousness to sexually transmitted diseases.

Barriers towards HPV Vaccinations for Boys and Young Men: A Narrative Review

“…Several studies have found that parents who had discussed sexual health with their sons were more likely to vaccinate [ 35 , 36 ]. On the other hand, many parents were afraid that the HPV vaccine would promote promiscuity [ 37 ], and fathers especially were more likely to link risk to female promiscuity [ 38 ]. Furthermore, parents believed that vaccination was not needed since the child was too young and was not sexually active [ 21 , 37 , 39 , 40 ].…”

“…On the other hand, many parents were afraid that the HPV vaccine would promote promiscuity [ 37 ], and fathers especially were more likely to link risk to female promiscuity [ 38 ]. Furthermore, parents believed that vaccination was not needed since the child was too young and was not sexually active [ 21 , 37 , 39 , 40 ]. However, it should be noted that parents tend to overestimate the age of sexual debut for their adolescent children [ 41 ].…”

“…Although knowledge about HPV is low among young people, in general [ 48 , 49 , 50 ] studies indicate that men have even lower knowledge than women [ 51 , 52 ]. They may be aware of cervical cancer but they tend to have inadequate knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination [ 37 , 53 , 54 ] and they perceive their own susceptibility to be affected by the virus to be low [ 55 ].…”

How Culture Wars Delay Herd Immunity: Christian Nationalism and Anti-vaccine Attitudes

“…Although other sociodemographic and ideological predictors of Americans’ attitudes toward vaccines overlap in ways specific to black and Hispanic Americans (e.g., misinformation about vaccines, lack of trust in medical authorities), they often come from different tributaries. For example, Americans who are more religious by various indicators are more likely to delay vaccination (Callaghan et al 2019; Rosen et al 2017), possibly because of a lack of trust in experts (Streefland et al 1999), a lack of knowledge about various vaccines (Birmingham et al 2019), or concerns about moral issues related to whether the vaccine requires cell lines derived from an aborted fetus (Pelčić et al 2016; Wombwell et al 2015) or that vaccination would indirectly promote premarital sex as in the HPV vaccine (Shelton et al 2013). Similarly, Americans who are more politically conservative, either by ideology or by party affiliation, tend to hold greater skepticism toward vaccines and to be more likely to delay update (Callaghan et al 2019; McCoy 2020), also because of lower levels of trust in government and experts (Baumgaertner, Carlisle, and Justwan 2018; Kahan et al 2010; Mesch and Schwirian 2015).…”

Associations between risk-perception, self-efficacy and vaccine response-efficacy and parent/guardian decision-making regarding adolescent HPV vaccination

“…Strong beliefs in sexual abstinence also play a role in HPV vaccination decisions. Survey studies have shown an inverse correlation between level of religious commitment and HPV vaccination coverage [ 22 , 23 ]. Furthermore, mediation analyses evaluating the relationship between religious beliefs, sexual activity and HPV vaccination among young adult women showed that sexual activity fully mediated the association between religious beliefs and HPV vaccination status [ 23 ].…”