Preference for human papillomavirus vaccine type and vaccination strategy among parents of school-age girls in Guangdong province, China

In China, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage among age-eligible girls is rather low, and parent’s attitude often plays a determinant role in their girls’ HPV vaccination. To accelerate HPV vaccination coverage, several cities and Guangdong province in China offered different HPV vaccine types with different reimbursement methods. In April 2022, we conducted a province-wide survey to investigate parents of children aged 9–15 in Guangdong province, and analyzed factors associated with their preference for HPV vaccine type and vaccination strategy. Of the 4,967 surveyed respondents, 2,610 (58.1%) have not yet vaccinated their children. Among these parents, 67.9% preferred to vaccinate their children with the nine-valent vaccine, while only 8.1% preferred the quadrivalent vaccine and 7.4% preferred the bivalent vaccine. More parents preferred fixed subsidies with free choices of HPV vaccine type over the domestic bivalent vaccine provided by the government (58.1% vs. 39.3%). The multinomial logistic regression showed that parents’ relationship with children, educational level, household income, and vaccination status were significantly associated with parents’ preference for HPV vaccine type. Parent’s relationship with children, workplace, household income, vaccination status, and age of children, were significantly associated with parents’ preference for HPV vaccination strategy. Our findings suggest that policymakers may consider adjusting the current vaccination strategy by offering more vaccination choices. More health education on HPV vaccine and vaccination should also be provided to parents of age-eligible girls. Future research should examine which HPV vaccination strategy is more effective in promoting HPV vaccine uptakes in China.