Background: The plummeting acceptance rate of the HPV vaccine in Japan is one of the most disappointing vaccine-related events in recent times. Since 2013, the national HPV vaccine coverage rate fell from more than 70% to less than 1%. This survey investigated parental HPV vaccine acceptance and the factors that influence it.
Methods: A multi-center survey was conducted in eight hospitals in Nara prefecture, Japan, from July 2019 to March 2020. Parents were asked to answer a series of questions in a survey that included information on the HPV vaccine.
Results: Among the 1884 parents who answered the questionnaire, 21.8% indicated that they had accepted the HPV vaccine even before reading the information provided in the questionnaire. The overall acceptance rate after everyone had read the information increased to 50.2% (p < 0.001). Among those who still did not accept the vaccine after reading the information (N = 925), 26.7% indicated that they might change their mind if more vaccine safety reports were to appear in the mass media; other potentially influencing factors were direct communication from health care providers (35.1%), a recommendation by government (19.5%), and peer behavior (16.8%).
Conclusion: The study showed that providing appropriate medical information significantly improves HPV vaccine acceptance. To reverse the loss of HPV vaccine acceptance in Japan, a multi-discipline approach that includes the mass media, health care providers, the government and the general population will be needed.
Keywords: Human papillomavirus; Immunization program; Questionnaire; Survey; Vaccine; Vaccine acceptance.
Copyright © 2020 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.