Benefit To Women Not Enough To Sway Men To Get HPV
Vaccine
ScienceDaily (June 5, 2009)
— Informing men that a new vaccine to prevent human
papillomavirus (HPV) would also help protect their female partners
against developing cervical
cancer from the sexually transmitted infection did not
increase their interest in getting the vaccine,
according to a new Florida State
University study. Mary Gerend, assistant professor of medical humanities and
social sciences at the FSU College
of Medicine, and Jessica Barley, a 2008 Florida State
psychology graduate who based her
honors thesis on the study, found that men are no
more likely to want the vaccination just
because they can help protect their
female sexual partners. An HPV vaccine for women has
been available since 2006, and a
vaccine for men is likely to be approved in the near future.
"You can probably interpret this finding in a
number of ways," Gerend said. "Thinking about
the benefit to their own health -- protection again rare
genital cancers and genital warts -- is all
men really need to know; telling them
all that extra stuff really isn't going to push them one way
or another."
For maximum benefit to public health, both men and
women should be vaccinated but little was
known about men's interest in the vaccine before Gerend's
study, which was published in the
journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
Gerend presented the findings recently at the annual
meeting of the Society of
Behavioral Medicine in Montreal.
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted
infection, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), which estimates that
approximately 20 million Americans are
currently infected with HPV and that another 6.2
million people become newly infected each
year. HPV-related cancers are very rare
in men, but last year the American Cancer Society
estimated that nearly
20,000 women would be diagnosed with cervical and other cancers
caused by HPV in 2008.
Gerend's research team randomly divided 356 male
college students into groups and gave one
group a self-protection message that focused on the benefits
of HPV vaccination for men and
the other a partner-protection message that
focused on the benefits of HPV vaccination for men
and their female partners.
Men were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 6, the
likelihood that they would get the vaccine,
with 1 equaling "very unlikely" and 6 equaling "very likely."
There was little difference between
the groups, with both expressing only moderate interest
in getting the vaccine. Those who
received the self-protection message had a
mean response of 3.9 on the 6-point scale, while
the mean response from the
group who got the partner-protection message was 3.8.
Moreover, men who identified themselves as being in
a committed relationship also did not
indicate a higher degree of interest in the vaccination.
"Now, we have to remember that these were 18-, 19-,
20-year-old male college students, so
we have to keep that in mind when considering their idea of a committed relationship," Gerend
said. "And if we did this study again, I'd
really want to make sure we drilled home the message
of the seriousness of HPV
for women. I think they got that message, but it might not have been
strong
enough."
The key point in encouraging women to receive the
vaccine is the message about how it reduces
their risk of developing cervical cancer. The results of Gerend's study have important
implications for how the vaccine for men will be
marketed for public acceptance when it
becomes available. Efficacy trials in men are
ongoing, and the Food and Drug Administration is
expected to approve it for use in
men as early as this year.
In the meantime, Gerend is working on another study
funded by the National Cancer Institute
to gauge the best message for encouraging young women to receive the HPV vaccination. The
most recent estimates from the CDC, based
on 2007 data, suggest that acceptance rates for
the HPV vaccine remain low --
about 1 in 4 for girls ages 13 to 17 and about 1 in 10 for
women in the 18 to 26
age group.
|