Reasons for acceptance or refusal of Human Papillomavirus Vaccine in a California pediatric practice

Despite the effectiveness and availability of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, HPV remains the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and has the lowest initiation rate of any routinely recommended teen vaccine. In January 2015, we surveyed parents at a Southern California pediatric private practice about reasons they accept or refuse HPV vaccine for their children. Of the 200 consecutive parents that had HPV vaccine initiation recommended for their child, 123 (61.5%) children were male and 38.5% were female. The overall age range of children was 10–17 years (median 12 years). Of the 164 (82.0%) who accepted the vaccine, a higher percentage were male (88.6% vs 71.4%, p=0.001). The most common reasons for accepting was strength of provider recommendation (84.1%) and available information (63.4%). The most common (52.8%) reason for refusing was wanting to learn more about the vaccine. These results further support the importance of both the strength of physician recommendation and improving public education about the vaccine.