Integrated Health Maintenance Reminders for Improved HPV Vaccine Administration: Toward Improvements in Completion...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Vaccinology
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is crucial for preventing HPV-related cancers.
• Ensuring vaccine completion across diverse populations remains a challenge.
• Health maintenance reminders (HMRs) are potential tools to improve vaccination adherence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of an HMR program on HPV vaccine administration and completion rates.
• To analyze the effectiveness of HMRs across different age, insurance, and race cohorts.
• To identify sociodemographic factors influencing HPV vaccine completion post-HMR implementation.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective pre-post analysis of patients aged 9-26 initiating HPV vaccination.
• Comparison of vaccine completion rates before (pre-2020) and after (post-2020) HMR implementation.
• Multivariate analysis to evaluate sociodemographic factors and HMR impact on vaccine completion.

Main Results:

• Overall HPV vaccine completion increased by 59.2% post-HMR implementation (37% pre- to 58.9% post-).
• Initially, Black patients and those aged 18+ had lower completion rates, but HMRs significantly improved uptake in these groups.
• Post-HMR, younger patients (≤14) showed higher completion odds (aOR=3.54), and race/insurance were no longer independent predictors of disparity.

Conclusions:

• HMR implementation is associated with increased HPV vaccine uptake across various age and racial groups.
• HMRs effectively reduced disparities in vaccine completion, particularly for previously underserved populations.
• Further research is needed to explore HMR implementation barriers in diverse healthcare settings.