Original articlePediatricians’ intention to administer human papillomavirus vaccine: the role of practice characteristics, knowledge, and attitudes
Section snippets
Methods
The survey instrument developed for this study was based on a validated survey of physicians’ immunization knowledge, attitudes, and practices [20] and a survey previously developed by the investigators [21]. It was pretested in a sample of 20 pediatricians and family physicians, and pilot tested in a sample of American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) members [22]. The revised, self-administered survey instrument was then mailed twice over a two-month period in 2004 to a random sample of
Results
Of the 1000 surveys sent to providers, 603 (60%) were returned and of those, 33 reported that they did not care directly for patients. Of the remaining 570 who were eligible to participate and returned a survey, 513 (90% of those eligible, 51% of total n) completed the survey. Those who completed the survey, compared with those who did not, were more likely to be female (p = .018) and were younger (p < .0001). Participant characteristics and HPV knowledge are shown in Table 1. Most participants
Discussion
In this study, we examined pediatricians’ attitudes about HPV vaccination and intention to recommend two hypothetical HPV vaccines to children and adolescents. Intention to recommend vaccination differed according to patient gender, patient age, and vaccine type. Pediatricians’ intention to recommend both HPV vaccines was markedly higher for older vs. younger patients, as demonstrated in recent studies examining attitudes about STI vaccination among gynecologists, nurse practitioners, and
Acknowledgments
Dr. Kahn was supported by Grant #K23 AI50923-01 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Mr. Riedesel was supported by Grant #T35 DK60444-02 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Zimet was supported by Grant #R01 AI49644 from NIAID. Dr. Rosenthal was supported by Grant #HD 40151 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
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