Low rates of free Human Papillomavirus vaccine uptake among college women

Purpose: To determine the uptake of the HPV Vaccine when offered at no cost to college women and to identify, psychosocial factors associated with failure to complete the three-dose regime.

Methods: Young women (N=214) were recruited from a university health clinic. After completing a brief self-administered questionnaire, women were provided with a voucher to receive the HPV vaccine (entire series) at no cost. Women completing the three-dose regime were compared to those declining the offer using data collected from the questionnaire.

Results: Exactly 50% of the women failed to redeem the voucher for dose one. Of those (n=107) receiving dose one, 21.5% (n=23) did not return for dose two. Of the 84 women receiving dose two 28.5% (n=24) did not return for dose three. Thus, only 60 women (28%) of those offered this free service completed the regime. In multivariate analyses comparing these women to the remaining 72% only two variables retained significance. Women reporting they had ever been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) were about 2.6 times more likely to complete the regime compared those never having an STD (AOR = 2.56 P=.02). Also, women indicating they could take time to return for doses two and three were far more likely to complete the regime (AOR = 2.71 P=.0001).

Conclusion: Among college women rates of completing the HPV vaccine series may be quite low even when services are offered for free. The experience of having an STD appears to promote regime completion as well as having time to return for dose two and three.