Gohealthygirls: A Beta-Test of a Website to Improve Informed Decision Making about HPV Vaccines by Parents and Daughters

The development and regulatory approval of vaccines to reduce Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infections among young females (and males) represents an important medical innovation that will reduce the incidence of cervical cancer among women and other cancers among men. Vaccination of female early adolescents prior to sexual initiation (age range 9-12 years) will have a consequent reduction in two specific HPVs – types 16 and 18 – known to cause a majority (~ 70%) of cause cervical cancer. As with many other science-based medical innovations, diffusion and adoption is not always rapid and will often depend on a variety of social and cultural factors, as well as the nature of the innovation itself. Research indicates: 1) there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty about HPV vaccines, and 2) there is a also a great deal of concomitant misinformation about the HPV vaccines.  These issues are likely to be pronounced in minority communities where access to valid information about medical innovations is often lacking, and the role of culture and community is often ignored in the provision of medical services. New Mexico is one of the most ethnically diverse states in the U.S., with strong representation of minority families of Hispanic and Native American descent, and represents a multi-ethnic population where these issues are pronounced. Our team conducted several focus groups of New Mexico parents of preteen girls and boys (ages 11-12), and their children, in order to systematically develop a set of web-based tools to prompt the informed adoption of the HPV vaccines. Our goal was to employ Diffusion of Innovations theory and related research on Informed Decision Making (IDM) to guide the iterative development of a 1) set of web-based tools designed for parents of female early adolescents that provides information and reduces uncertainty about HPV vaccination, and 2) a set of web tools designed for female early adolescents themselves that will also provide information and reduce uncertainty about HPV vaccination. Presented in this poster will be the results of a beta test of the project website, Go Healthy Girls, currently ongoing. The pilot test is being conducted in New Mexico with ethnically diverse parents (n=30) of preteen girls (ages 11-13) and their daughters (n=30). Planned analyses for the beta test include parents’ pretest to post-test differences in HPV vaccines knowledge, attitudes towards HPV vaccination, and parents’ intention to have their daughters vaccinated with one of the two HPV vaccines. A randomized efficacy trial of the Go Healthy Girls web site that will examine vaccine uncertainty reduction and vaccine adoption and website usage variables will be conducted on completion of the beta test.