From Knowing To Deciding: How Attitudes And Perceived Susceptibility Shape HPV Vaccine Intentions

Abstract

Objective

This paper aimed at analyzing the psychological processes that affect HPV vaccination intention among adult women. The researchers particularly examined the mediating risk of vaccine attitudes and beliefs on the relationship involving HPV awareness and vaccination intention, and the moderation impact of perceived vulnerability.

Methodology

The survey design used was cross-sectional and quantitative. A sample of 163 adult females who used a convenience and snowball sampling technique was used to collect data. The participants took standardized tests of HPV knowledge, attitudes, beliefs (CHIAS scale), perceived susceptibility, and intended to vaccinate. The analysis of the data included the correlation, bootstrapped mediation analysis, and moderated regression.

Findings

The findings denoted that there was a significant positive correlation between HPV awareness and the attitudes/beliefs about the vaccine. The projected mediation route whereby knowledge is translated into intention via attitudes was not supported. Perceived susceptibility was determined as the biggest and most important direct predictor of intention to vaccination but the suggested moderating effect was not significant. One of the major methodological findings was the low reliability of the composite attitude scale, which means that the multidimensional subscales in the composite should be studied separately.

Significance

This paper has highlighted the importance of the perceived personal risk in the use of HPV among adult females to influence the HPV vaccination position, challenging the primacy of the general beliefs. It offers an essential methodological framework upon which additional research relating to vaccine reluctance will be conducted and the need to have the public health messages that effectively communicate vulnerability to HPV.

Research limitations

The cross-sectional nature of the study and reliance on self-reported data limits the study to causation. Given that a non-probability sample has been used, it could have an effect on generalizability. The main limitation is the poor internal consistency of the overall measure of attitude indicating that further research is needed to study its subparts.