Effects of a web-based HPV vaccination intervention on cognitive outcomes among young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men

ABSTRACT

Knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs are important antecedents to HPV vaccination, yet remain suboptimal among young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YGBMSM). We report the effects of a theoretically-informed, web-based HPV vaccination intervention on these cognitive outcomes. From 2019–2021, we recruited a national sample of YGBMSM ages 18–25 in the United States who were unvaccinated against HPV (n = 1,227). Participants received either standard HPV vaccination information online (control) or population-targeted, individually-tailored content online (Outsmart HPV intervention). Mixed effects models determined if pre-post changes in cognitive outcomes differed between study groups. For five of seven knowledge items about HPV, there were larger pre-post increases among the intervention group than the control group in the percentage of participants who provided correct responses (all statistically significant at p = .05 after Holm’s correction). There were also larger pre-post improvements among the intervention group than the control group for most attitudes and beliefs examined, including response efficacy of HPV vaccine (pre-post increases in means: 0.57 vs. 0.38); self-efficacy for the HPV vaccination process (pre-post increases in means: 0.23 vs. 0.10); and intention to get HPV vaccine (pre-post increases in means: 0.70 vs. 0.28) (all statistically significant at p = .05 after Holm’s correction). Outsmart HPV is a promising tool for improving key cognitive antecedents to HPV vaccination among YGBMSM, supporting the use of theoretically-informed interventions to affect such outcomes. If efficacious in increasing HPV vaccine uptake in future analyses, this intervention could be utilized in clinical and other healthcare settings that provide services to YGBMSM.

KEYWORDS:

• Human papillomavirus (HPV)
• HPV vaccination
• gay or bisexual
• MSM (men who have sex with men)
• intervention
• young adult

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Trials registration

The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04032106 (available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04032106).

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number [R37CA226682] [originally awarded as R01CA226682]. Additional support was provided from the Center for Health Communications Research at the University of Michigan [P30CA046592] and the Recruitment, Intervention, and Survey Shared Resource at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center [P30CA016058]. This work was prepared while Dr. McRee was employed at the University of Minnesota. The opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Human Services or the United States Government.