Human papillomavirus vaccine: what are women most concerned about?

This study aims to investigate the areas of concerns that women have regarding human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination.

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in a convenience sample of 1450 women attending outpatient family planning clinics in Hong Kong to assess women's concerns regarding HPV vaccination. The associations between each demographic characteristics and the importance of various issues concerning the vaccine, such as short and long-term side-effects, side-effect affecting appearance, number of women who have had it, effectiveness, effect duration and cost were explored using χ(2) tests for comparison of proportions. Multiple binary logistic regression analysis was applied to further identify independent demographic characteristics which were significantly associated with each of these issues.

The top three factors that most women felt very important were vaccine effectiveness (45.4%), effect duration (44.0%) and long-term side-effects (43.7%). Education level significantly affected the degree of concerns in these areas (OR=1.15, P<0.001, 1.14, P<0.001 and 1.09, P=0.006, respectively) while income was significantly inversely associated with the importance of cost (OR=0.92, P<0.001) and effectiveness (OR=0.95, P=0.047).

The above issues should be specifically addressed when vaccine information is given, bearing in mind the particular concerns in women with different socio-economic backgrounds.