The effectiveness of a religiously framed HPV vaccination message among Christian parents of unvaccinated adolescents in the United States

ABSTRACT

Background:

The uptake of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines has been controversial among religious parents due to beliefs that their children are expected to practice sexual purity and so do not need protection from a sex-related infection. Also, if at all they get infected in the future, God can protect them from sickness without a vaccine. Yet, most HPV vaccination messages are secular, lacking spiritual themes. This study compared the effectiveness of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Information Statement (VIS) on HPV with our intervention message- a scripture-embedded HPV vaccination message (using a randomized controlled trial design) on vaccination intention.

Methods:

The study was conducted online. Participants were 342 Christian parents (from any denomination) of unvaccinated adolescents aged 11-17 years. The intervention message used the Cognitive Metaphor Theory to map the constructs of the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark to HPV vaccination. We framed Noah as the parents, the flood as HPV, and the ark as the vaccination. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the changes in vaccination intention before and after the intervention.

Results:

Our findings showed that parents who received the scripture-embedded message reported a higher intention to vaccinate their children than those who received the CDC VIS (β= 0.31, 95% confidence interval [95%CI] = 0.11-0.52; p=0.003).

Conclusion:

Our findings support the need for equitable messaging regarding HPV vaccination. Faith-based messaging interventions that seek to increase HPV vaccination should be framed to address religious anti-vaccination beliefs.

KEYWORDS:

• Equitable messaging
• HPV
• HPV vaccination
• vaccine hesitancy
• religiosity
• messaging intervention
• religious messaging
• vaccine information statement

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Ayokunle Olagoke

Ayokunle Olagoke, MPH, Ph.D., is a Health Communication researcher and an Assistant Professor in the School of Health and Kinesiology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, NE, USA

Jennifer Hebert-Beirne

Jennifer Hebert-Beirne, Ph.D., is a Community Health researcher and Associate Professor at the Division of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).

Brenikki Floyd

Brenikki Floyd, Ph.D., is a Health Communication researcher and a Clinical Assistant professor at UIC.

Rachel Caskey

Rachel Caskey, MD, MPP, is a health services researcher with an interest in improving national vaccination efforts. She has an appointment at the UIC School of Public Health and is a member of the UIC Cancer Center where she collaborates on efforts to improve HPV vaccination rates to reduce the incidence of HPV-related cancers.

Andrew Boyd

Andrew Boyd, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, College of Applied Health Sciences, UIC. He is also the Associate Chief Health Information Officer for Innovation and Research at UI Health.

Yamilé Molina

Yamilé Molina, Ph.D., is a cancer prevention researcher and Associate Professor at the Division of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).