Clinics in which providers presented human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination as an assumed part of tween health care had a 5% increase in HPV vaccination coverage, compared with clinics that did not receive “announcement” training, based on data from a parallel-group, randomized trial of 30 pediatric and family medicine clinics in North Carolina.
Many providers hesitate to recommend HPV vaccination for 11- to 12-year-olds for a number of reasons, including lack of time and anticipation of a lengthy conversation about sex, wrote Noel T. Brewer, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his colleagues.
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At 6 months after the training period, 17,173 children aged 11-12 years and 37,796 children aged 13-17 years were seen at the clinics. Overall, clinics that underwent announcement training increased HPV vaccine initiation for 11- and 12-year-olds by 5.4% over the control clinics. Clinics that received conversation training showed no significant increase in vaccine initiation, compared with controls. Intervention groups did not differ from the controls in terms of other ages (adolescents aged 13-17 years) or other immunization coverage, including HPV series completion, Tdap, and meningococcal vaccines.
The findings were limited by several factors, including the collection of data from a single Southeastern state that may not be generalizable to other areas, the researchers noted. The results, however, “support training providers to use announcements as an approach to address low HPV vaccination uptake in primary care clinics,” especially at the recommended ages for routine vaccination, Dr. Brewer and his associates said.
Read the full study here (Pediatrics 2016;139:e20161764. doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-1764).