From Going out Half-Done to Fully Protected: Intrinsic and External Motivators in HPV Vaccine Decision-Making Across Cultures
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Setting, Participants, and Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Theme 1: Awareness of HPV: Determining If the Vaccine Is Right for Me
“So, I think my community in particular is really wary about all types of vaccines. Specifically, because a lot—I think they’ve been targeted by a lot of misinformation about how vaccines relate to autism.”[P7]
“Anything that’s going to help—I think me, personally, there is a higher of chance of cervical uterine cancers that run in my family on my father’s…I don’t see that there’s any negative, I mean, outside of like side effects, but any vaccine has those side effects—”[P2]
“…Somebody gets paid for them. And so, I felt like I lost a lot of trust with-- like just given everything that happened with COVID-19. I lost a lot of trust in like vaccinations and hearing horror stories in that regard. I feel like, if any of that is withheld from me, I would most likely opt out automatically because I just do not trust the system. Like ease my trust. Like show me that you guys have been doing research on this, that this has been around for a while…”[P3]
“…Like, how does the things that we’re putting in our body, how does it affect the body? Like short term, long term. Like I’ve heard horror stories… I mean, people just sharing how like when their children got vaccinated, like it stunted development and growth and all these different things. Allergic reactions. Even—when I heard some of the warnings [unintelligible] and like with getting vaccinated as a young person, like as a child, I remember thinking like, oh, like (chuckles) I have to be careful for fever and if I feel sick for the next few days or just like all these things. And it’s like—I can’t remember what it was but it was one of the things they told me to be watching out for that it kind of scared me a bit because it was like, wait, this is potentially what could happen just from taking the vaccination?”[P3]
3.2. Theme 2: Intrinsic Motivators for HPV Vaccine Adoption: “Like Going to the Salon and Getting Your Hair Half-Done”
“…that’s kind of like starting your hair but not finishing it. Like going to the salon and getting your hair like half-done. …It’s like when you start something but you don’t finish it… Like you can’t say that you did it because you only started it. Like you didn’t complete it. It’s not complete.”[P8]
“My friends and I are all kind of on the same page with vaccines, with, you know, like you need to get—what you need to get to protect yourself and just everyone around you.”[P14]
“I think definitely my parents for sure because, before I do anything really, I go to them for everything.”[P4]
“As Hispanics, we’re only going to take a vaccine if it’s required.”[P6]
“When I was younger, I actually told my parents that I was thinking about having sex, and…it prompted us to calling to meet a gynecologist…She was informing me of what birth control would prevent and then was also like, you know, going into STDs, she was saying that I guess like the medical world was getting a little bit more familiar with HPV and that I should probably get a vaccination before I started having sex.”[P8]
“Especially like being a Black person in healthcare, I feel like we don’t really get the benefits, like we’re kind of like not cared about as much, so I feel like it’s just better to see somebody that’s more understanding to you talking about it than to see somebody else.”[P20]
“In my culture, STDs are not talked about much, but I think that having a vaccine or engaging in medical care is sort of generally approved of…I think that women of color rightfully feel quite vulnerable in the world, and I think having some sense of control over being able to protect themselves I think would be valuable to them.”[P19]
4. Discussion
5. Strengths and Limitations
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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When you hear someone say “human papillomavirus” or “HPV” what do you think of instantly?
|
What about the HPV vaccine, what do you think of instantly? |
Let’s say you are about to receive the HPV vaccine—how many shots would you get? |
Have you ever received the vaccine?
|
What are the reasons you should get the vaccine? What about not getting vaccinated? |
What might prevent you from receiving the vaccine? |
How would you describe these feelings? |
Participant | Ethnicity | Age | County | HPV Vaccination Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
P1 | African American | 32 | Davidson | Non-Vaccinated |
P2 | African American | 41 | Davidson | Non-Vaccinated |
P3 | African American | 31 | Shelby | Partially Vaccinated |
P4 | Latina | 23 | Rutherford | Partially Vaccinated |
P5 | African American | 29 | Davidson | Partially Vaccinated |
P6 | Latina | 40 | Rutherford | Non-Vaccinated |
P7 | African American | 24 | Davidson | Non-Vaccinated |
P8 | African American | 26 | Davidson | Partially Vaccinated |
P9 | Latina | 18 | Rutherford | Unsure |
P10 | Latina | 31 | Rutherford | Non-Vaccinated |
P11 | Latina | 19 | Montgomery | Fully Vaccinated |
P12 | African American | 27 | Shelby | Non-Vaccinated |
P13 | African American | 32 | Shelby | Partially Vaccinated |
P14 | Chinese | 22 | Knox | Non-Vaccinated |
P15 | African American | 39 | Davidson | Non-Vaccinated |
P16 | Vietnamese | 27 | Hamilton | Fully Vaccinated |
P17 | Latina | 32 | Davidson | Non-Vaccinated |
P18 | Latina | 24 | Rutherford | Non-Vaccinated |
P19 | Indian/South Asian | 39 | Davidson | Fully Vaccinated |
P20 | African American | 23 | Davidson | Non-Vaccinated |
P21 | African American | 25 | Davis | Fully Vaccinated |
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Cernasev, A.; Cliff, K.; Hallam, H.; Nagel, E.; Johnson, A.; Hagemann, T.M. From Going out Half-Done to Fully Protected: Intrinsic and External Motivators in HPV Vaccine Decision-Making Across Cultures. Women 2025, 5, 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/women5020014
Cernasev A, Cliff K, Hallam H, Nagel E, Johnson A, Hagemann TM. From Going out Half-Done to Fully Protected: Intrinsic and External Motivators in HPV Vaccine Decision-Making Across Cultures. Women. 2025; 5(2):14. https://doi.org/10.3390/women5020014
Chicago/Turabian StyleCernasev, Alina, Karissa Cliff, Hayleigh Hallam, Emily Nagel, Alex Johnson, and Tracy M. Hagemann. 2025. "From Going out Half-Done to Fully Protected: Intrinsic and External Motivators in HPV Vaccine Decision-Making Across Cultures" Women 5, no. 2: 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/women5020014
APA StyleCernasev, A., Cliff, K., Hallam, H., Nagel, E., Johnson, A., & Hagemann, T. M. (2025). From Going out Half-Done to Fully Protected: Intrinsic and External Motivators in HPV Vaccine Decision-Making Across Cultures. Women, 5(2), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/women5020014