Emergency Medicine Physician Attitudes towards HPV vaccine uptake in an emergency department setting

Background: A physician’s recommendation is the most effective published method of motivating HPV vaccination initiation. The emergency department (ED) is the ‘public health safety net’, and often the only access to care for underserved populations. Recommendation of the HPV vaccine by emergency medicine (EM) physicians has great potential to improve vaccination rates among subpopulations who do not have access to routine medical care. We assessed willingness of EM physicians to recommend the vaccine, target high-risk women, and perceived barriers to vaccination in the ED.

Methods: A cross sectional study using an 11-item survey with a response format utilizing a validated Likert scale, was used to assess physician attitudes of 50 EM physicians (19 EM attending physicians and 31 resident physicians) towards recommending the HPV vaccine in an ED setting to age eligible patients.

Results: 67.4% stated they would recommend the vaccine, 23.9% were neutral, and 8.7% would not recommend the vaccine to age eligible patients in the ED. 41% noted lack of adequate reimbursement for vaccination as a barrier to vaccination in the ED (p <.05). Physicians were comfortable targeting women at high risk for cervical cancer for vaccination (p <.05).

Conclusion: Local EM physicians are comfortable targeting high-risk women for HPV vaccination in an ED setting. Support of EM physicians in the national effort to improve HPV vaccine uptake is an important step in eradicating a largely preventable yet lethal cancer.