Not Just For Girls: Leveraging Sex-Specific HPV Disease-Risk Messaging and Comparative Vaccine Framing—Influences on Vaccine Intentions Among Undergraduates Material Piloting

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and the cause of various cancers; despite being preventable with a safe and effective vaccine. Vaccination rates among college-aged adults have never surpassed the 80% threshold recommended for herd immunity, with females bearing the primary weight of vaccination responsibility. The persistent gap between male and female vaccination rates has been attributed to the feminization of the HPV vaccine, rooted in its original marketing for cervical cancer prevention. The present study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of sex-specific, risk-comparison HPV prevention messaging on vaccination intentions among male and female undergraduate students (N = 300; ages 18–22). We propose to employ a 2 × 2 between-subjects design with one randomized experimental factor, message condition, and one measured subject variable, sex assigned at birth. Each message condition has two levels: single-panel HPV disease-risk information only, and double-panel HPV disease-risk information plus a vaccine-risk comparison. The current portion of the study involves pilot testing the messaging conditions necessary for the dissertation experiment this fall. This requires 30 participants (goal 32, 16 male; 16 female) from the undergraduate student population to test the surveys and messaging to validate materials that have been revised in accordance with an HPV epidemiologist. Sex-specific messaging was selected because HPV disease risks predominantly impact reproductive anatomy, therefore, all participants were required to disclose their sex assigned at birth. The current proposal examines the historical influence of social determinants of health on HPV vaccination in males and females using the Extended Parallel Process Model while drawing from social identity and gender schema theories. The present study predicts sex-specific, double panel graphics of HPV disease burden combined with a comparison vaccine-risk panel will produce greater increases in vaccination intention than the single panel (disease-risk only) messaging alone, with effects moderated by sex assigned at birth.