HPV Vaccine and Latino Immigrant Parents: If They Offer It, We Will Get It
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ORIGINAL PAPER
HPV Vaccine and Latino Immigrant Parents: If They Offer It, We Will Get It Abraham Aragones1 • Margaux Genoff1 • Cynthia Gonzalez1 • Elyse Shuk1 Francesca Gany1
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Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract HPV vaccination rates remain low in the fast growing Latino children population while we continue to observe large HPV-associated cancer disparities in the Latino population. In this study, we sought to elucidate Latino immigrant parents’ barriers to obtaining the HPV vaccine for their children. Five focus groups were conducted with Latino immigrant parents of minors (i.e., 9–17 year old) who had not yet initiated the HPV vaccine series. Three major findings were identified from the focus groups: (1) low levels of awareness and knowledge of HPV and the HPV vaccine, (2) high confidence that parent can get the vaccine for their eligible child and (3) lack of provider recommendation as the main barrier to vaccination. Children of Latino immigrant parents could benefit from increased provider recommendation for the HPV vaccine while providing tailored HPV information to parents. Keywords HPV vaccine Latino children Latino immigrant parents Vaccination barriers
Introduction Latino children are the fastest growing population of children in the United States and currently constitute over 22 % of children under the age of 18 [1]. Over half of the
& Abraham Aragones [email protected] 1
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities, Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, 300 E. 66th Street 15th Floor, New York, NY 10065, USA
16 million Latino children have at least one parent who is an immigrant [1]. This growing population is at greater risk of developing Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) related cancers compared to other populations in the United States [2–5]. Latinas have the highest rate of cervical cancer in the U.S, approximately 66 % higher than non-Hispanic whites [2, 3]. Among Latino men in the U.S., the rate of penile cancer is 1.3 per 100,000 compared to 0.8 among non-Hispanic men [4]. In addition, Latinos have higher rates of HPV-associated anal cancer rates when compared to the general population [5]. These cancers are preventable in many cases through the use of the HPV vaccine. The HPV vaccine has been licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in adolescent girls and boys ages 9 through 26 years for the prevention of cervical and anal cancers, among others [6]. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends routine vaccination for males and females starting at 11 years of age. Despite the significant advantages of childhood HPV vaccination, uptake of the vaccine among eligible Latino girls and boys (i.e., 9–17 year-olds) has been suboptimal [7, 8] compared to the general population. In 2013, approximately 55 % of all eligible girls of any ethnicity had the first dose of the vaccine and only 38 % had completed the full three doses [8, 9]. Moreover, HPV vaccination rates among males remain very
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