Introduction Human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B (HBV) vaccines are critical to cancer prevention strategies; however, achieving high vaccination coverage remains a challenge. We aimed to investigate the proportion of Canadian 14-year-old children who received these vaccines by child’s gender and examine sociodemographic factors associated with vaccination. Methods We used a cross-sectional design to analyse data from the 2021 Childhood National Immunization Coverage Survey. Data were collected using self-completed electronic questionnaires or telephone interviews. Parents/guardians of 14-year-old children separately reported their child’s 1-dose HPV and 1-dose HBV vaccination status (categorised as vaccinated, unvaccinated or unknown vaccination status), and their sociodemographic characteristics. Univariable multinomial logistic regression models were used to calculate vaccination status by sociodemographic variables. Results After weights were applied, the final weighted sample size was 413 255 and 413 710 respondents for the HPV and HBV samples, respectively. Uptake of 1 dose of the HPV and HBV vaccines was 74.9% and 78.7%, respectively, with higher uptake in girls compared with boys for HPV (80.0% vs 69.9%) and HBV (80.9% vs 76.4%). Having more children in the home was associated with higher odds of being HPV unvaccinated. Less parent education, being born outside Canada, being a boy and having an Indigenous identity were associated with higher odds of an unknown HPV vaccination status. Older parent age and less parent education were associated with higher odds of being HBV unvaccinated. Less parent education and parents who were not married/common law were associated with higher odds of an unknown HBV vaccination status, while older parent age and residing in Quebec were associated with lower odds. Conclusions HPV and HBV vaccination coverage in Canada did not reach national and global targets of 90% in 2021. This study highlights sociodemographic disparities in vaccine uptake, which were unique to each vaccine and vaccination status. These findings provide evidence of inequities that should be systematically monitored.
Eyre et al. (Thu,) studied this question.