Psychosocial determinants of Chinese parental HPV vaccination intention for adolescent girls: Preventing cervical cancer

Abstract

Background Intention is an important precursor of decisions to undergo vaccination. Using an extensively modified theory of planned behaviour, we explored psychosocial determinants of vaccination intention against human papillomavirus (HPV) among Hong Kong Chinese parents. Methods A random sample of 368 (response rate 54.6%) Chinese parents who had at least one daughter aged 12-17 years, had heard of HPV vaccine before but had not vaccinated daughters against HPV and had completed telephone interviews between February and April 2014. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis examined the additive effect of theoretical constructs. Stepwise multiple regression analysis determined which variables contributed the most to the prediction of vaccination intention. Results Principal determinants of parental HPV vaccination intention were anticipated worry if not vaccinated (β=0.23, p=0.001), anticipated anxiety reduction after HPV vaccination (β=0.19, p=0.005), proneness to peer influence (β=0.17, p=0.002), private health insurance for children (β=0.14, p=0.009), perceiving daughter's susceptibility to cervical cancer (β=0.17, p=0.003), number of daughters (β=-0.13, p=0.011), descriptive norms of HPV vaccination (β=0.13, p=0.021), perceiving cervical cancer as behaviour-preventable disease (β=-0.11, p=0.031) and anticipated regret if not vaccinated (β=0.14, p=0.046). Cervical cancer-related worry/anxiety explained 32.8% of the variance in parental HPV vaccination intention. Conclusions Results suggest that cervical cancer-related worry/anxiety is the most important predictor of parental HPV vaccination intention in Hong Kong Chinese and possibly other populations. Social influences also play an important role affecting parental vaccination intention, particularly peer influence and descriptive norm beliefs. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of future HPV vaccination promotion and cervical cancer prevention programme.