Information does not affect parents' views on HPV vaccine.(Gynecology)

Parents' beliefs, rather than knowledge, are what drive their acceptance of human papillomavirus vaccines for their children, according to a new study.

Therefore, simply educating them about human papillomavirus (HPV) "may not be sufficient to influence their attitudes toward HPV vaccination, as attitudes may be driven by other, non-information-based preferences," wrote Dr. Amanda F. Dempsey of the University of Washington, Seattle, and her colleagues (Pediatrics 2006;117:1486-93).

Their cross-sectional survey of 1,600 parents of 8- to 12-year-old children included a randomized intervention for half of them, which consisted of an HPV information sheet. The researchers hypothesized that those parents who received the information sheet would demonstrate increased HPV knowledge compared with controls, and therefore more openness toward vaccinating their children. However, among the 840 participants who completed the study, although those participants who received the information sheet (429) had higher scores compared with the controls (411) on the HPV knowledge assessment tool (5.57 vs. 4.17), there was no significant difference between the groups with respect to parental vaccine acceptability scores.

Instead, the most significant predictor of parental HPV vaccine acceptance was belief in the vaccines' benefits to society and to their children, noted the authors. In addition, five other predictors were peer group influence, physician recommendation, the perception that their children were susceptible to sexually ...