142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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302596
Perception and Acceptability of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccination among Women in Panama City, Panama

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 5:09 PM - 5:22 PM

Lisa Werth, B.A. , Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Santa Clarita, CA
Arlene Calvo, PhD, MPH , Community and Family Health, Global Health, University of South Florida Panama Program, Panama, Panama
Morgan Hess-Holtz, MPH, CPH , USF Health International Foundation, Panama City, Panama
Lourdes Alguero, RN, MPH , Universidad de Panamá, Panama
Sheila Murphy, PhD , Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Meghan Bridgid Moran, PhD , School of Communication, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Joyee S. Chatterjee, PhD , Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA
Paula Amezola, MPH , Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA
Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati
Background: In 2008, Panama became the first country in Latin America to offer the HPV vaccine at no cost to 10 year-old girls as part of their national immunization program.  Although reported coverage rate is >80% among the intended population, no studies have been published on perception and knowledge of the HPV vaccine among women in Panama.

Methods: Women aged 18-65 with no previous history of cervical cancer were recruited in waiting rooms of three geographically distinct community health clinics in Panama City.  Participants completed a 54 question verbal survey in Spanish.

Results: A total of 345 women responded (92% response rate).  Although 93.3% of respondents had heard of HPV, knowledge of the illness was limited and only 60.2% of respondents had heard of the HPV vaccine.  After a brief orientation about the vaccine 95% of women reported that they would have their daughters vaccinated.

Conclusion:  Despite gaps in knowledge, coverage of the HPV vaccine and acceptability among Panamanian mothers is high. This suggests that removing geographical, structural, and economic barriers to access the vaccine is sufficient to promote acceptance of vaccination among the study population.  Although vaccine acceptability also appears to be high among Latinas in the United States, vaccination coverage continues to be suboptimal, highlighting the importance of policy or structural interventions improving the accessibility and affordability of current HPV vaccine and illustrating the impact of the one’s environment on public health outcomes.

Learning Areas:

Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the acceptability of and awareness of HPV vaccination of young girls among women aged 18-65 in Panama City, Panama

Keyword(s): International Health, Immunizations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As lead investigator for this project, I have been involved from conception of the protocol through data collection and analysis. I have been working closely with faculty at the University of Southern California (USC) and at the University of South Florida, Panama Office on this project, and have the support of multiple mentors with experience in numerous large-scale international grants focusing on sociocultural aspects of women’s health, community based participatory research, and cancer prevention.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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