Association Between Parents’ Perceptions About Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) Vaccines and Their Decision To Vaccinate Their Child Against HPV

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The WHO classified vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten threats to global health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people had doubts about vaccines. The HPV can lead to several types of cancer. The COVID-19 impact on US HPV vaccination reluctance is unknown. Thus, the aim of the study is to investigate parents' perceptions of Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19), the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, and HPV vaccination decisions. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational survey was administered using Qualtrics to United States parents with at least one child aged 9–18. The survey consisted of five sections: screening, parent’s perception of general Vaccination, COVID-19, HPV, and demographics. Rasch analysis was used to evaluate the instrument reliability and validity, which included principal component analysis (PCA), scale functionality, person measure, item reliability, and person reliability. A logistic regression model with variables selected using backward elimination (p<0.05) was used to evaluate the associations between parents’ perception of COVID-19 and HPV vaccine decisions. RESULTS: The study included 508 parents. The instrument contained four domains: General Vaccination, COVID-19, HPV, and Parents’ COVID-19 Experience. Except for General Vaccination, PCA showed unidimensionality. Response options satisfied scale functionality analysis. Average person measure was 0.7±8.0 logits. Person reliability was 0.7-0.9, whereas item reliability was 0.9-1.0. Item fit ranged from 0.7-2.1. A few of the difficult items to endorse with were I trust social media and/or TV to tell me the truth about vaccines, I would have my children vaccinated for COVID-19 if their school required it, vaccinating my child against HPV helps to protect others from getting HPV, and I believe the COVID-19 vaccine was approved in a reasonable amount of time. A few of the easy items to endorse were physicians’ address vaccine concerns, there are safe COVID-19 vaccines for children, and I believe in vaccines. The multivariate logistic regression model with backward elimination showed that HPV Domain (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.61 – 2.21), Parents COVID-19 Experience Domain (AOR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.18 – 1.47), and men compared to women (AOR = 2.48, 95% CI = 1.37 – 4.47) were significantly associated with parents’ planning not to vaccinate their children with HPV. CONCLUSIONS: Our research offers insight into variables associated with parents’ decisions about children’s COVID-19 and HPV vaccines. More research is needed to improve the HPV vaccine uptake.