Acceptability of single-dose HPV vaccination schedule among health-care professionals in Kenya: a mixed-methods study

The World Health Organization recommends a single-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination schedule for girls and boys to accelerate progress toward cervical cancer elimination. We applied the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA) within the context of HPV vaccination to assess the acceptability of a single-dose schedule among health-care professionals in Kenya.

A REDCap survey was developed using relevant Theoretical Framework of Acceptability domains and validated with health-care professionals. Descriptive analyses and multivariate Poisson regression were conducted to assess factors associated with increased acceptability. Free-text responses were analyzed using a rapid qualitative approach, and findings were presented using a joint display.

Among 385 responses, 74.2% of health-care professionals were female and 48.6% were nurses. On average, respondents had been in their position for 60 months, and one-third (33.2%) were based at level-4 facilities. The majority (75.84%) thought that giving a single-dose of the HPV vaccine to adolescent girls and young women was either acceptable or very acceptable. Qualitative findings highlighted that lack of information was the underlying reason for health-care professionals who were resistant, and most clinicians thought that a singled-dose schedule was less burdensome to clinicians and patients. Hospital directors had a non-statistically significantly lower acceptability likelihood than nurses (incident rate ratio = 0.93, 95% confidence interval = 0.45 to 1.71) and health-care professionals at urban facilities had a non-statistically significantly lower acceptability likelihood than clinicians in rural facilities (incident rate ratio = 0.97, 95% confidence interval = 0.83 to 1.13).

Although not statistically significant, predictors of increased acceptability provide information to tailor strategies to increase HPV vaccination coverage and accelerate progress toward cervical cancer elimination.