>> So in this report we examined trends
in the reasons parents did not vaccinate
or do not intend to vaccinate.
And we looked at the time period of 2010 to 2016
and we looked in both boys and girls
from the United States that were in the vaccine age range.
And so the motivation for this study was
actually based on an earlier study
that we had conducted together
where we were looking at subgroups of the population
who did not in fact need or did not intend to vaccinate.
And so that paper gave us a clue to who was not
currently being vaccinated in the United States
and then this paper is an extension
so we can understand why those individuals
do not intend to vaccinate.
And so in this paper parents reported the reasons
why they don't intend to vaccinate in the coming year.
And that was really just because it gave us
an indication of sort of where we could go next.
If we now know who is not being vaccinated
and why they're not being vaccinated
it could really guide our interventions
both in a public health level and a clinical level.
>> So in looking from 2010 to 2016
we found that for both boys and girls
common reasons that parents reported
they didn't want to vaccinate their children
included lack of safety, perceived lack of safety,
perceived lack of necessity,
and then also a lack of knowledge about the vaccine.
And this really didn't change a lot
over time for either gender.
What we found that changed a lot
was the concern about sexual activity.
We saw that this concern was reported a lot less in 2016
compared to 2010 for both genders.
And the concern about the child being male
actually decreased all the way to 3% so it was very,
very low reported reason for lack of vaccination.
And then when we looked at 2016 specifically
and said, you know, what are the contemporary reasons
that boys versus girls are not being vaccinated,
our two major findings were that,
for boys the lack of recommendation
was reported by one in five parents
compared to girls where one in 10
reported a lack of recommendation.
And then also for boys the prevalence of
reporting safety as a concern for lack of vaccination
increased to about 15%.
>> I think what the data sort of help us do now
is take a step forward as a public health body
and to come up with both recommendations
or how we can better phrase recommendations
geared towards our parents,
but also where we can put our efforts
with regards to health communication campaigns.
So over the time course, right, of the last 10 years
that the HPV vaccine has been FDA recommended
we see that safety remains
a persistent concern among parents.
And this is despite the scientific literature
growing and growing with regards to data really showing
safety of the current vaccine.
And so knowing both what has or has not changed over time
as well as what are the concerns right now
for parents in America, I think that's really where we
need to sort of merge both
our understanding of parents and our ability
to properly communicate with those parents
to create really responsive public health campaigns.
>> And then from a physician perspective,
so physicians who are recommending the vaccine,
which can include pediatricians, family practice doctors,
including mid level such as nurse practitioners,
physician assistants, as well as OBGYNs.
I think our data really informs them that
the concern about sexuality
and the need to address sexuality prior to
recommending or discussing the vaccine
really is a much lower priority for parents
and should not serve as a barrier to recommendation.
So physicians need to recognize that parents
are still concerned about safety and necessity
and with extra education about the vaccine
physicians can really provide parents with that information
to empower them to vaccinate their children
against this incredibly important cancer preventing vaccine.
>> Yeah, I think this raises one really
final important point.
I think this is really uniting both the population
that we're targeting, right,
the parents of our young adolescents,
with our broader public health messages.
We now have nationwide commercials geared at
increasing HPV vaccination and aligning those messages
with the messages that they then hear from the provider
so we have a consistent message
that really provides a united front towards our parents
with the common goal of
increasing HPV vaccination in the US.