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Awareness of and Support for HPV Vaccination Among Pacific Islander Women in Southern California

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Abstract

Pacific Islander (PI) women experience disproportionately high rates of cervical cancer and mortality and have lower rates of Pap testing. Since up to 70% of cervical cancers could be prevented by being vaccinated for human papilloma virus (HPV), this cross-sectional study explored the predictors of HPV and vaccine awareness, receipt of the vaccine, and attitudes toward vaccinating children among adult PI women in southern California, who historically have low rates of HPV vaccination and high rates of cervical cancer that could be prevented with HPV vaccination. Participants (n=148) consist a subsample of Chamorro, Samoan, and Tongan women, ages 21 to 65 years, who were in a larger randomized community study to promote Pap testing. Overall, younger age and higher American acculturation were significantly associated with ever hearing about HPV and the vaccine. However, American acculturation was also associated with negative attitudes toward vaccinating their children for HPV. This paper provides preliminary insights into barriers and facilitators to HPV vaccination among PIs in the USA and also informs the development of educational programs to reduce cervical cancer incidence and mortality in this underserved population.

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Acknowledgements

The authors recognize the following individuals for their contributions to the longitudinal study:

Jie W. Weiss, Lola Santos, Peter Flores, Preciosa Flores, Ualania Ho`opai, Jasmine Deguzman Lacsamana, Genesis Lutu, Darlene March, Noelle Moananu, Ciara Paige, Lourdes Quitugua, Peniamina Taito, Vanessa Tui’one May, Alisi Tulua, Marina Tupua, Elenoa Vaikona, Dorothy Vaivao, Isileli Vunileva, and all the members of the Community Advisory Board.

Availability of data and material

In accordance with NIH recommendations, de-identified data for this study can be made available upon request.

Code availability

All analyses were conducted using SPSS, version 25. No custom codes were used to conduct the analyses.

Funding

This project was funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (grant number R01CA149324).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, California State University, Fullerton, CA, USA

    Michele Mouttapa & Melissa Cunningham

  2. Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Sora Park Tanjasiri

Authors
  1. Michele Mouttapa
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  2. Melissa Cunningham
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  3. Sora Park Tanjasiri
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michele Mouttapa.

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Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study presented in this manuscript was approved by the Institutional Review Board at California State University, Fullerton prior to implementation. At the time of recruitment, the research team explained to the participants, in person, the purpose of the study. Participants also received an informed consent form document, which they had time to review. Participants then provided their written consent on the last page of the informed consent form prior to answering survey questions.

Consent for publication

The consent form that participants sign indicates that the results from this study could be used for research purposes in the future, including peer-reviewed conference presentations and publications.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Mouttapa, M., Cunningham, M. & Tanjasiri, S.P. Awareness of and Support for HPV Vaccination Among Pacific Islander Women in Southern California. J Canc Educ 37, 1372–1377 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-01965-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-01965-9

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