Associations between HPV vaccination among women and their 11–14-year-old children

Abstract

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been available in the United States for over a decade. We sought to examine the associations between self-reported receipt of HPV vaccination among women and their 11–14-year-old children in 27 low-coverage states. Among the 3,261 mothers we surveyed, 18% reported receiving ≥1 dose of HPV vaccine. A significantly higher proportion of vaccinated women reported vaccination of their children compared to unvaccinated women (83% vs. 56%, p < .001). In multivariable logistic regression, vaccinated women (vs. unvaccinated) had 3.58 (95% CI: 2.81–4.56) times the adjusted-odds of vaccinating their children (≥1 dose HPV vaccine). Among unvaccinated children, vaccinated mothers (vs. unvaccinated) had 3.32 (95% CI: 2.09–5.26) times the adjusted odds of high intention to vaccinate their children in the next 12 months. We did not observe associations between mothers’ vaccination confidence and their vaccination status. We conclude that mothers who received ≥1 dose of HPV vaccine may be more likely to initiate or highly intend to initiate the HPV vaccine series for their children. This may have important implications for meeting population goals for HPV vaccination coverage as an increasing proportion of mothers are likely to be vaccinated over time.