February 4, 2019 – HPV Acceptability

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:03 — 1.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead: Parents find some messaging about the HPV vaccine more compelling than others, Elizabeth Tracey reports

How can parents be informed about HPV vaccination to improve the odds that they’ll choose it for their children? A recent study showed that by far, framing the information as a preventative against cancer was the parental hands down favorite. Maria Trent, an adolescent medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, says parents always want to protect their children.

Trent: We want to think about the hepatitis vaccine. No one looks at their infant and says I think my baby is going to grow up and have sex, ever. Or that my child might use IV drugs and acquire a hepatitis B infection. They think I’m going to do everything that I can, to make sure that this child has the best advantage for health and life, and if that means giving him a vaccine before we leave the hospital to start them on that path we’re going to do it.  We have to think about HPV vaccination in a similar way when we talk to parents.  :31

Trent applauds increasing rates of HPV vaccination. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.