Assessing the feasibility of a smartphone application based intervention promoting HPV vaccine uptake and completion among young adult, African American women

Objective: 1) to determine the feasibility of a smartphone application at improving human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake among young adult, African American (AA) women; 2) to discover the social acceptability of a HPV vaccine uptake driven smartphone application.

Methods: A survey based, cross sectional study design was implemented among 22 young adult, AA women aged 18-26 years seeking non-emergent care in an emergency department setting who confirmed having a smartphone.

Results: Among 22 participants, 19 (86.4%) completed the entire survey. The majority (47.6%) of patients had a monthly income of <$,500, 45% used the male condom as contraception, 21.1% previously had a sexually transmitted infection, and 89.5% were heterosexual. Most (68.4%) reported having one main sex partner in the past year. All participants were aware HPV is transmitted via sexual intercourse and 89.5% believed the vaccine would prevent an HPV infection. Surprisingly, 15.8% of study subjects reported receipt of the HPV vaccine and 50% did so to protect against cervical cancer and genital warts. Results revealed 94.7% of subjects believed the application could be effective at improving the willingness of their peers to obtain the HPV vaccine. Nearly half (47.4%) of participants always use their smartphone applications and 68.4% confirmed willingness to participate in the proposed intervention.

Conclusion: Study findings imply that a smartphone based intervention would be readily embraced by the target population. This modality potentially enhances the social desirability of interventions, resulting in adoption of preventive methods that are facing rejection in the absence of innovative research models.