Abstract
Objective
Several US health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, now
encourage primary care professionals to recommend human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination
before the traditionally targeted ages of 11 to 12 years as a strategy to increase
vaccination timeliness. To understand the feasibility of this approach, we sought
to evaluate primary care professionals’ current recommendation timing and willingness
to recommend HPV vaccination at age 9.
Methods
A national sample of 1047 primary care professionals completed our online survey in
2021. Respondents were physicians (71%), advanced practitioners (17%), and nurses
(12%).
Results
About one-fifth (21%) of primary care professionals reported that they already routinely
recommend HPV vaccination at ages 9 to 10. Among the remaining 822 respondents, over
half (61%) reported being somewhat or more willing to start recommending at age 9.
Willingness was higher among those working in family medicine versus pediatrics (adjusted
odds ratio [aOR]: 1.40, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03, 1.92), but lower among
those with ≥20 years of practice experience versus ≤9 years (aOR: 0.65, 95% CI 0.44,
0.96). Many primary care professionals believed age 9 recommendations would have the
advantage of protecting adolescents before HPV exposure (67%) or increasing vaccination
timeliness (55%). The most commonly perceived disadvantage was that parents are not
ready to talk about HPV vaccination at age 9 (73%).
Conclusion
Over two-thirds of primary care professionals in our national sample reported they
recommend HPV vaccination at ages 9 to 10 or are somewhat or more willing to do so.
Training may be needed to help primary care professionals address perceived parental
hesitancy toward age 9 recommendations.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: January 22, 2022
Accepted:
January 13,
2022
Received:
August 6,
2021
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: Noel Brewer has received research funding from Merck and Pfizer and served as a paid advisor for Merck. Peyton Thompson has received research funding from Abbott Laboratories and Gilead Sciences. The other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Identification
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Copyright © 2022 by Academic Pediatric Association
