Educational comic books may be ‘powerful tool’ for improving HPV vaccination
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
An educational comic book about HPV and HPV vaccine improved college students’ attitudes about completing the vaccination process and their intention to do so within one year.
The findings were presented during the 2020 Virtual Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
“Human papillomavirus causes genital warts and several types of cancers in both males and females,” Obianuju Aguolu, PhD, MBBS, MPH, postdoctoral associate of the internal medicine – infectious diseases department at Yale University, told Healio. “In the United States, young adults, especially college students, are mostly affected. Despite the proven safety and efficacy of HPV vaccines, U.S. HPV vaccination coverage remains lower than the Healthy People 2020 goal of 80% coverage for both males and females.”
She added that some college students are part of the HPV vaccination “catch-up” age group.
“Effective communication through timely, complete and appropriate communication is key to successful and sustainable HPV vaccination in communities. Understanding effective messages and methods of dissemination are critical to addressing suboptimal vaccine uptake,” she said. Comic books may be effective for health education of diverse groups because they are “easily accessible, low cost, engaging and unobtrusive.”
Aguolu and colleagues examined the predictors of college students’ intention to complete the HPV vaccination series and the impact of an educational HPV vaccine comic book targeted to college students on their knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, perceived norms, perceived behavioral control and intention regarding completing the HPV vaccine doses within 1 year.
The results demonstrated that, among “a diverse population” of male and female students aged 18 to 26 years at a college in northeast Ohio, only 29% reported finishing three doses of HPV vaccine. According to Aguolu, reading the comic book “significantly improved” participants’ knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination, and mean HPV and HPV vaccine knowledge scores improved, from 50% to 90%. Attitudes, perceived norm, self-efficacy and intention regarding complete HPV vaccination within one year of reading the comic book also improved significantly, Aguolu added.
“Participants reported that they liked the storyline of the comic book, enjoyed reading it, found it easy to read and understand and said it is an acceptable format for receiving accurate HPV/HPV vaccine information,” Aguolu said. “Educational comic books may be a powerful tool for improving HPV vaccination among college students. Our findings will aid other researchers in developing effective health promotion interventions, especially for college students.”
Collapse
Aguolu O, et al. Development and evaluation of an educational human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine comic book for college students in Northeast Ohio: An application of the integrative behavior model. Presented at: NFID Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research; June 18-19, 2020 (virtual meeting).
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts