Abstract B88: Prevalence of HPV vaccination of Cambodian American adolescents: Mother-daughter communication, knowledge, and demographic factors in vaccination
Authors: Lee Haeok , Kim Minjin , Shi Ling , Linda Thiem , Peou Sonith 
Published: May 2016

Purpose: To assess the socio-cultural factors, the level of knowledge of HPV infection, and mother-child communication about STD among Cambodian American mothers and their implications for HPV vaccination of their daughters.

Background: Cervical cancer incidence and mortality has decreased significantly over the last 30 years largely due to cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. However, cervical cancer is still five times higher among Southeast Asian women as compared to White women. HPV is vaccine preventable and mothers play an important role in promoting vaccination and health education of their children. However, there is a dearth of literature on knowledge level and the social and cultural factors influencing vaccination behaviors among Cambodian American parents. As a result, it is difficult to develop an effective HPV prevention program.

Methods: A descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional survey designed was employed. Cambodian-American mothers were recruited by collaborative working with Cambodian American community health leaders from Cambodian cluster areas including temples, Khmer restaurants, cultural fairs, Khmer serving community health centers in Massachusetts. 130 Cambodian American mothers completed a health survey by face-to-face interviews in either English or Khmer. Outcome variable was HPV vaccination among their daughters. The main predictor of interest was mother's age, percent of life in the U.S., income, and education in the U.S., English reading, HPV knowledge, and comfort level of speaking with their daughters about STD.

Results: Of 130 Khmer mothers, 92% were born in Cambodian, only 47% attended/finished high school in the U.S., and 213% reported that monthly family income from all sources was less than $1,000. Daughters' vaccination rate is 29% while sons' is only 16%. Their knowledge about HPV was very low and thought that their daughters had more knowledge about STD than they have. Logistic regression analysis showed that Cambodian daughters had significantly higher odds of vaccination if their mothers showed higher level of English reading, knowledge, or heard about HPV. However, after adjusting only mother's HPV knowledge significantly associated with daughters' HPV vaccinations.

Conclusions: The strikingly low rates of HPV vaccination among Cambodian girls and boys underscore the need to improve vaccination. The findings can be used to help the development of intervention addressing low HPV-related knowledge and targeted HPV vaccination promotion programs for Cambodian Americans which in turn will help to prevent continued cervical cancer disparities.

Citation Format: Haeok Lee, Minjin Kim, Ling Shi, Thiem Linda, Sonith Peou. Prevalence of HPV vaccination of Cambodian American adolescents: Mother-daughter communication, knowledge, and demographic factors in vaccination. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eighth AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 13-16, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25(3 Suppl):Abstract nr B88.