Abstract B87: Correlates of HPV vaccination intention of Hispanic mothers of 11-17-year-old daughters living along the Texas-Mexico border
Authors: Morales-Campos Daisy Yvette , Parra-Medina Deborah M. , Mojica Cynthia M. 
Published: October 2015

Background: Cervical cancer incidence and mortality are higher for Hispanic women along the Texas-Mexico border than for other female population groups. Incidence could be reduced if teenaged Hispanic girls received the HPV vaccine before they became sexually active. However, few Hispanic girls compared to U.S. girls receive all three HPV vaccine doses (31% vs 36%), which prevent cervical cancer. Parents are crucial to the success of HPV vaccine uptake efforts. The purpose of this study is to examine correlates of mothers' intention to vaccinate their 11-17 year old daughters.

Methods: We utilized baseline data from an outreach and education program utilizing promotoras and peer educators to deliver health education to mothers and daughters to increase HPV knowledge and promote HPV immunization. Our analyses utilized data from mothers of never vaccinated girls (n=371). First, we checked the validity of perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and barriers, self-efficacy, attitudes toward HPV vaccination, and subjective norms scales using Cronbach's alpha. Second, we used Pearson's correlation coefficient to examine if perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and barriers, self-efficacy, attitudes toward HPV vaccination, and subjective norms (constructs) were correlated with mother's vaccine intention.

Results: The majority of mothers were married (84%), spoke only Spanish (89%), had middle-school education (64%), and a household income of less than $10,000 (82%). Analyses revealed that the scales for susceptibility, severity, and subjective norms were not significantly correlated to intention and had low internal consistency [except for the susceptibility scale (alpha= 0.72)]. Only the self-efficacy scale showed high internal consistency (alpha=0.92) and was significantly correlated to intention (r=.346, p=&lt;0.01), as was the perceived benefits and barriers scale (r=.159, p=&lt;0.01).

Conclusions: Although we selected English-language survey items from published literature and national surveillance tools (i.e., HINTS, BRFSS) and translated them to Spanish, preliminary findings suggest that most of the scales did not adequately measure the constructs in Spanish-speaking populations. Only the self-efficacy scale, which was previously validated among Spanish-speaking Hispanics, had high internal consistency. The perceived susceptibility scale also showed good reliability. These findings inform future research on HPV vaccination by providing insight into which constructs are correlated with vaccine intention and which scales have good internal consistency among Spanish-speaking populations.

Citation Format: Daisy Yvette Morales-Campos, Deborah M. Parra-Medina, Cynthia M. Mojica. Correlates of HPV vaccination intention of Hispanic mothers of 11-17-year-old daughters living along the Texas-Mexico border. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Seventh AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 9-12, 2014; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015;24(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B87.