Search Here

In recent years, increasing numbers of physicians have recommended the HPV vaccine. However, over that same time span, a recent study has found that parents have become increasingly reluctant to vaccinate their children against the human papilloma virus. Researchers are a bit puzzled about this trend.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, the Medical University of South Carolina, the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic. Over the course of three years, researchers administered questionnaires to parents of 13- to 17-year-old children. The parents were asked whether their children had received three immunizations: the Tdap tetanus booster shot, the MCV4 vaccine against meningitis and the HPV vaccine. Parents whose children were not up-to-date on the shots were asked why.

According to the nearly 100,000 parents surveyed, 20 percent said that their teens were not up to date with their tetanus booster, MyHealthNewsDaily reports. Over 60 percent of the parents reported that their children were not up to date with the meningitis vaccine. For parents who were not up to date, they most commonly reported that their doctor had not recommended the vaccines. Other parents reported that the vaccines were not necessary, that they had lack of knowledge about the vaccines or that they did not know.

Among the parents asked about the HPV vaccine, only 9 percent said that their doctors had not recommended it. In total, 75 percent of parents reported that their children were not up-to-date with the vaccine. However, in 2008, 40 percent of parents said that they did not intend for their child to receive the vaccine; in 2010, that number jumped to 44 percent.

HealthDay reported that 4.5 percent of parents cited safety concerns in 2008, while 16 percent of parents reported the same thing in 2010. That is puzzling because researchers cannot pinpoint why a nearly four-fold increase in safety concerns would occur during this time period. In addition, HPV vaccines carry the same risks as the other two vaccines - of which only 1 percent of parents reported safety concerns.

Over 17 percent of parents said that it was not necessary, and 11 percent said that their daughters did not the vaccine because they were not sexually active. That assumption is a faulty one because doctors recommend that girls receive the vaccine before they are sexually active.

Researchers believe that parents are hiding their concerns about their daughters' sexual activity behind the veil of "safety" concerns. However, research has shown that the HPV vaccine does not make young women any more promiscuous than they would otherwise be. The researchers say that physicians should frame the vaccine in a way that highlights its protection against cervical cancer, not in a way that highlights sexual activity.

The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.