Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination Compliance in a Military Aviation Training Community

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination compliance as reported by the CDC in 2011 falls short of a national goal to have 80% of adolescents vaccine-complete by 2020. The Naval Aviation Schools Command, Pensacola, Florida offers a single point of contact for military aviation trainees offering near-complete capture of an HPV vaccine target population. The purpose of this study is to identify baseline HPV vaccination rates among military aviation trainees and whether or not the provision of educational materials at the start of aviation training would increase future HPV vaccination compliance.

Approval to conduct this study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Virginia. Our population of interest consisted of US Navy and Marine Corps student naval aviators, student naval flight officers (officers), and student enlisted air crew (enlisted) reporting for aviation related duty. A convenience sampling of officer and enlisted student classes checking in for training was performed over a period of 6 months. The first 3 months of students were assigned as the intervention group and the remaining 3 months of students were assigned to the control group. This study was conducted in two parts: (1) an anonymous survey captured cross-sectional data of self-reported HPV vaccine use, and (2) prospective analysis of service members' HPV vaccine rates before and after educational intervention as documented within the military's electronic health record system, Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA).

AHLTA immunization status was evaluated for 1,164 personnel; 114 (9.8%) were excluded for missing basic vaccination information. Of the remaining 1,050, another 199 (19%) members were excluded as already vaccine complete (evidenced by three shots documented) prior to entry into the study. Within the 199 service members with documented baseline HPV vaccination completion, 197/199 (99%) were officers and 2/199 (0.1%) were enlisted. A total of 851 personnel were included for prospective analysis. Person-time of 100 person years was used and the vaccination rate translates to 16.62/100 person years (95% CI 11.29, 23.59) within intervention vs. 2.96/100 person years (95% CI 0.80, 7.58) within control groups and are significantly different (P = 0.0001). Comparing intervention and control groups, rate ratios = 5.61 (95% CI 2.14, 18.64) and rate differences = 13.66 (95% CI 7.13, 20.19). Among intervention group survey responders who previously reported nonvaccine use, 50.5% reported a change in opinion about obtaining the vaccination, with a higher proportion of enlisted members reporting a change in opinion (62.8% vs. 39.7%, P = 0.0053).

Electronic health records immunizations review noted a baseline vaccine completion rate of 19%. Our study showed a health inequity between enlisted and officers, with officers having 99% of the documented baseline completion rates per AHLTA data. Our prospective analysis noted statistically significant rate differences of 13.66% and rate ratios of 5.61 between intervention and control groups. This analysis of AHLTA data combined with survey response of 50.5% indicating a change in opinion about HPV vaccine use among those who had not yet started vaccine series suggests targeted education would be a low-cost intervention to improve HPV vaccine use rates.