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Children of Spanish-speaking parents less likely to receive HPV vaccine
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Among Hispanics in California, daughters of Spanish-speaking parents were found to be less likely to receive the HPV vaccine than were daughters of English-speaking parents.
However, language was not associated with vaccination in multivariate models when income, education and health care access were also included.
Jasmin A. Tiro
“Research on populations with large immigrant subgroups, like Hispanics, can inform whether daughters of immigrants are less likely to be immunized and why,” Jasmin A. Tiro, PhD, and colleagues from the University of Texas School of Public Health and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center wrote. “Parental correlates of vaccination are important because the vaccine is recommended for girls aged 11 to 17 years, parents are primary decision-makers for childhood immunization, and most states require parental consent.”
Prior studies with Hispanic immigrants demonstrated that speaking Spanish, low socioeconomic status and poor access to care all impede adherence to preventive health services, but Tiro and colleagues examined whether language specifically was independently correlated with HPV vaccination in the presence of other barriers.
The researchers analyzed data from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey and established Hispanic ethnicity and racial group through federal standards. To avoid any possible confusion over distinctions of race, Tiro and colleagues selected Hispanic parents of daughters aged 11 to 17 years who reported their racial group as white (n=1,090).
Parents were asked whether their daughter had received the HPV vaccine. The researchers used language spoken in the home as the primary independent variable. Socioeconomic status was measured with two variables — parental education and annual household income as a percentage of the federal poverty level according to the US Census Bureau.
To measure health care access of study participants, the researchers combined items assessing health insurance and usual source of care.
According to study results, Spanish-speaking parents were less likely to have their daughters vaccinated than were English speakers (OR=0.55; 95% CI, 0.31-0.98). However, the addition of income data and access to multivariate analyses made the language variable nonsignificant (OR=0.68; 95% CI, 0.35-1.29).
“Our findings confirm previous studies showing that Hispanics’ lack of cancer screening attributed to language barriers are, in fact, due to the same poor access faced by all low-[ socioeconomic status] individuals, regardless of language,” Tiro and colleagues wrote. “The presence of Spanish-speaking providers and translators is beneficial for improving health care access. One strategy to increase HPV vaccination is to ensure that both English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanics know about and use programs providing free vaccines.”
Disclosure: The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.
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