Penn research on HPV and vaccination willingness

We're generally more than a bit reluctant to post things based solely on press releases, but here's a very interesting item coming out of our own university about attitudes regarding HPV vaccination. The press release, "Likelihood of HPV Vaccination Affected by How Information Is Presented, Penn Study Reveals," describes a study presented last week at the American Association for Cancer Research's 5th Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

A sample of 635 Americans was randomly assigned to read one of three different paragraphs explaining the purpose of HPV vaccination. Subjects were then asked about their willingness to receive the vaccine. The content of the paragraphs and corresponding results:

"One paragraph addressed how the vaccine protects against cervical cancer, another how the vaccine protects against cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infection and the third how the vaccine protects against cervical cancer, sexually transmitted infection and how it may or may not lead to increased sexual promiscuity among those vaccinated.... When women in the survey read that the vaccine protects only against cervical cancer, 63 percent indicated that they were very likely or somewhat likely to get the vaccine compared to 43 percent of women who read that the vaccine protects against cervical cancer and a sexually transmitted infection."

The survey was conducted by the Center for Excellence in Cancer Communication Research at Penn's Annenberg School for Communication. Without a published paper to consult, it's all but impossible at the moment to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the survey design and the overall value of these findings. (For example, the third paragraph about sexual promiscuity seems very peculiar, as does the absence of data regarding that portion of the survey.)

If confirmed, however, these would be very interesting insights regarding attitudes about sexually transmitted infections among potential recipients of HPV vaccines. We'll update you if and when the study appears in print.