141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

282074
Improving access and addressing barriers to HPV vaccination for adolescents and young adults

Monday, November 4, 2013

Rebecca Braun, MPH , California Family Health Council, Berkeley, CA
Aileen Barandas, MSN, FNP , California Family Health Council, Los Angeles, CA
Andria Hancock-Crear, MPH , California Family Health Council, Los Angeles, CA
Despite the potential to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates remain low among adolescents and young adults. While approximately half of those eligible will initiate the three-dose vaccine series, only one in three will complete the series within one year. Poor and minority youth are less likely to initiate or complete the vaccine series; only one in 10 women ages 12 to 26 who live at or below the poverty level have been vaccinated against HPV. In September 2012, California Family Health Council (CFHC) was awarded funding from the Office of Population Affairs to develop a program to address barriers that contribute to low HPV vaccination rates among adolescents and young adults in California. A needs assessment was conducted among Title X-funded health care organizations in California; the results guided a multi-pronged programmatic approach. Clinic-level interventions included a webinar focused on clinical strategies to improve access to and completion rates of the HPV vaccine series, paper and electronic clinic reminder systems to eliminate missed opportunities for vaccination, and increased utilization of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. Client-level interventions included the development of client reminder cards with targeted messaging about the importance of completing the three-dose vaccination series, and an automated system for HPV vaccination reminders via text message or email. The next phase of the project will include training and technical assistance at 15 to 20 pilot sites, and the development of a toolkit for improving HPV vaccination services in diverse clinical settings.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control

Learning Objectives:
Identify barriers to HPV vaccination series completion for adolescents and young adults Describe programmatic strategies at the clinic and client level to increase access to the HPV vaccine and improve vaccine completion rates

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I led the design, implementation and evaluation of this HPV project at California Family Health Council (CFHC), using funding applied for and received from the US Office of Population Affairs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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