Using cancer survivor narratives to increase parents' human papillomavirus vaccination intentions

To compare the preliminary efficacy and acceptability of three narrative communication messages about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to a fact-based informational control message among parents with an unvaccinated child.

A national sample of 948 U.S. parents/guardians with an unvaccinated child aged 9-17 years participated in an online experiment in June or July of 2023. Forty-nine percent of children were female, 23% were a racial or ethnic minority, and 55% received free school lunch. Parents were randomly assigned to watch one of four brief videos: a nonnarrative informational control, a role model only narrative, a precancer survivor narrative, or a cancer survivor narrative. The primary outcome variable was HPV vaccination intentions. The secondary outcomes were message acceptance and rejection. Covariates and a potential mediator were also assessed. Intervention effects were assessed using analysis of variance, hierarchical linear regression, and mediation analyses.

Parents were satisfied with all four messages, as indicated by high levels of message acceptance and low levels of message rejection. Higher intentions to vaccinate were observed for parents exposed to the HPV cancer survivor narrative message (vs. the control message) and the effect remained statistically significant after controlling for covariates including child age, free lunch status (a proxy for family income), parent gender, provider recommendation, and previous refusal of HPV vaccine. Exploratory mediation analyses indicated that the cancer survivor narrative effect was mediated by increases in emotional engagement with the message.

Cancer survivor narratives are a highly acceptable and potentially promising intervention strategy for increasing HPV vaccine uptake. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).