Increasing HPV Vaccination Support Through a Pilot Film-Based Community Engagement

Mass media interventions are considered an effective tool to improve support for preventive health behavior. We conducted a retrospective analysis of data collected during 2016-2017 community screenings of the film Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic to raise public awareness about human papillomavirus (HPV). The objective was to examine the change in participants' support for HPV vaccination after viewing the film. The film was screened five times at four different communities. Each screening was followed by a discussion session with local health care experts. A 9-item structured survey measured the impact of the film on motivation and overall support for HPV vaccine on a 4-point Likert scale. We used Wilcoxon Signed Rank test to examine the change in vaccination support. We obtained 64 survey responses. Participants were informed about the film through word of mouth and friends (20%), flyers (19%), and their health care providers (9.4%). Fifty-five percent were parents/guardians, and 75% were aged 26-65 years. About 28% and 22% of participants reported their daughters or sons had completed all 2 or 3 HPV shots. Results from Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test indicated statistically significant increase in vaccination support (Z =  - 5.44, p < 0.001) after viewing the film. The median response from before to after changed from "supportive" to "very supportive". Community film screening followed by discussion with local health care experts is a promising strategy for increasing HPV vaccine support. Future work should address increasing access to the film, examine the film's impact on increasing HPV vaccine uptake and assessing program cost effectiveness.