Abstract
Latinas have the highest incidence of cervical cancer. Latino parents’ perceptions of the human papillomavirus (HPV) and willingness to have their sons and daughters vaccinated in Utah is largely unknown. Latino parents/guardians of children ages 11–17 years were recruited from two community organizations (N = 52) to participate in a mini-survey and focus group. Guided by the social ecological framework, a Latina facilitator conducted five focus groups that were recorded, transcribed and translated. Descriptive statistics were calculated from the mini-survey. Two members of the research team performed inductive content analysis of the focus group transcriptions separately. Discrepancies were discussed and resolved during bi-weekly meetings with group members who were present during the focus groups. Parents reported low HPV vaccine knowledge, high vaccine costs, and lack of strong provider recommendations as the main barriers to vaccine receipt. Language appropriate educational resources and consistent provider recommendations may enrich Latino parents’ perceptions about the HPV vaccine.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the participants for their time and important feedback. We acknowledge the staff at Alliance Community Services as well as the staff at Comunidades Unidas for their help in participant recruitment, and hosting the focus groups. We also thank Guadalupe Tovar at the Huntsman Cancer Institute for facilitating the focus groups. We have received generous support from the Huntsman Cancer Institute, the University of Utah College of Nursing Research Committee, and the Beaumont Foundation for portions of this research study. Research reported in this publication was also partially supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1ULTR001067. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
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The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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Warner, E.L., Lai, D., Carbajal-Salisbury, S. et al. Latino Parents’ Perceptions of the HPV Vaccine for Sons and Daughters. J Community Health 40, 387–394 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-014-9949-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-014-9949-0