Major Finding: Eleven percent of girls who self-identified as black received all three doses of the HPV vaccine, compared with 22% of the white girls and 15% of those identified as other races.
Data Source: A retrospective review of medical records on 3,297 girls between ages 9 and 26 years, and who received the first HPV vaccine dose between June 2006 and June 2008 from an urban, academic, pediatric medical center with multiple primary care and specialty clinics.
Disclosures: None was reported.
TORONTO — Girls who identified themselves as white were twice as likely as those who identified themselves as black to complete the three-shot vaccination series against the human papillomavirus, according to a retrospective review of medical records.
“This is concerning because, historically, black women have had lower rates of cervical cancer screening and been more at risk from dying of cervical cancer. With unequal distribution of the vaccine, the racial disparity in cervical cancer may worsen,”said Dr. Lea Widdice, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Widdice presented her results in a poster.
Moreover, overall only 14% of girls initiating the HPV vaccine series actually completed the three-shot series within 7 months of the first dose. Clinical recommendations for the vaccine are to get the third shot 6 months after the first.
Dr. Widdice and her colleagues conducted a retrospective review of medical records on 3,297 girls between ages 9 and 26 years, and who received the first HPV vaccine dose between June 2006 and June 2008 from an urban, academic, pediatric medical center with multiple primary care and specialty clinics.
Overall, 11% of the black girls received all three doses of the vaccine, compared with 22% of the white girls and 15% of those identified as other races. Patients were predominately from primary care (95%) and 65% used Medicaid. The majority (67%) self-identified as black, 29% said they were white, and 4% were classified as other races.
Race was still associated with getting all three doses on schedule even after controlling for type of insurance and the different clinics giving the vaccine.