By Harriet Fisher, Research Fellow, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol (HPRU BSE).
Background
In recent years fewer young people, especially those from minority ethnic groups, are getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. As parents are responsible for giving consent, providing parents with additional information to make their decision could help more young people get vaccinated.
What we did
Researchers from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioural Science and Evaluation at University of Bristol (HPRU BSE) worked alongside parents and professionals to develop four films to help support parents with concerns about the HPV vaccine decide whether their teenage child should be vaccinated or not. The content, style, and format of the COMMUNICATE films are intended to address vaccine misinformation and were informed by the preferences of vaccine hesitant, ethnically diverse parents. The films also let parents know how they can arrange to have their teenager vaccinated if they want.
The films have been translated into four key community languages and are now available for dissemination. These films compliment the resources we created for the EDUCATE lesson, which is designed to address young people’s information needs prior to being offered the HPV vaccine.
What are the next steps?
Dr Harri Fisher and Dr Clare Thomas have received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account to carry out a study to develop and test a communication strategy to support use of the films.
The three phases to this study
Phase one: co-creation of a resource for families about the HPV vaccination programme
During this phase, we will co-create public facing webpages where families and professionals can access information and resources about the HPV vaccine. This will include separate webpages for parents and young people, within which the films created by the project team as part of the EDUCATE and COMMUNICATE studies will be embedded.
Phase two: co-development & implementation of communication strategy
We next plan to co-design, refine, and implement a communication strategy to support use of the COMMUNICATE and EDUCATE films locally. We will hold workshops with key stakeholders and parents to identify individuals who will take responsibility for sharing the films, how they will share them, and how to overcome barriers and facilitate use of the films by ethnically diverse parents locally.
Phase three: national networking
To ensure policy impact, the study researchers will engage with key players nationally to share learning and explore opportunities for the COMMUNICATE films to support delivery of the HPV vaccination programme on a wider scale. This could include using national dissemination channels and mailing lists (for example, vaccine update) or referencing within professional guidance documents (for example, supporting immunisation programmes).
By the end of the project, several routes to improving communication about the HPV vaccine with families will have been identified and implemented, complementing the existing national communication strategy. Dedicated public facing webpages hosting resources for families about the HPV vaccine will have been co-created.
The project will contribute to overcoming HPV vaccine misinformation and empowering parents with accessibility to the information they need to make decisions which can help protect their teenage children’s health and engage more positively with the consent procedures.
If you would like to know more about the project and our communication tools about the HPV vaccine, please contact Dr Harri Fisher by email: harriet.fisher@bristol.ac.uk.
Papers
- Developing communication materials to support vaccine hesitant, ethnically diverse parents decision-making about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine: a co-design study, by Harriet Fisher et al., in BMJ Open.
- Information needs of ethnically diverse, vaccine-hesitant parents during decision-making about the HPV vaccine for their adolescent child: a qualitative study, by Harriet Fisher et al., in BMC Public Health.
- Development of a multicomponent intervention to increase parental vaccine confidence and young people’s access to the universal HPV vaccination programme in England: protocol for a co-design study, by Harriet Fisher et al., in BMJ Open.
