Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar 29;13(3):e0194920.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194920. eCollection 2018.

Primary care pediatricians' attitudes and practice towards HPV vaccination: A nationwide survey in Italy

Francesco Napolitano  1 , Monica Navaro  1 , Luigi Vezzosi  1 , Gabriella Santagati  1 , Italo Francesco Angelillo  1
Affiliations

Primary care pediatricians' attitudes and practice towards HPV vaccination: A nationwide survey in Italy

Francesco Napolitano et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This national online cross-sectional survey in Italy assessed primary care pediatricians' (PCPs) attitudes and practices regarding Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and the contribution of several characteristics. The questionnaire was distributed from September 2016 to June 2017 to a random sample of 640 PCPs by email via an internet-link leading to a web-based survey platform (Lime Survey). Only 18.4% of PCPs always recommend the HPV vaccine to 11-12 year old boys. PCPs with longer practice activity, working in solo practice, always recommended the HPV vaccine to 11-12 year old girls, and believed that the vaccine was effective for boys were more likely to always recommend the HPV vaccine. PCPs working in a Region where the vaccination was actively recommended and provided free of charge to 11-12 year old boys had higher odds of recommending vaccination. More than two thirds of PCPs (77.4%) always recommend the HPV vaccine to 11-12 year old girls. PCPs who believed that the vaccine was effective for girls and safe in both boys and girls, who always talk with patients of 11-18 years or their parents about HPV infection and vaccination, and who obtain vaccine information from scientific journals were more likely to always recommend the vaccine. PCPs should employ evidence-based educational strategies in order to achieve a better coverage and to reduce the morbidities and mortality of diseases associated with HPV.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Forman D, de Martel C, Lacey CJ, Soerjomataram I, Lortet-Tieulent J, Bruni L, et al. Global burden of human papillomavirus and related diseases. Vaccine. 2012;30: F12–F23. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.07.055 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Giuliano AR, Nyitray AG, Kreimer AR, Pierce Campbell CM, Goodman MT, Sudenga SL, et al. EUROGIN 2014 roadmap: Differences in human papillomavirus infection natural history, transmission and human papillomavirus-related cancer incidence by gender and anatomic site of infection. Int J Cancer. 2015;136: 2752–2760. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29082 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Veldhuijzen NJ, Snijders PJ, Reiss P, Meijer CJ, van de Wijgert JH. Factors affecting transmission of mucosal human papillomavirus. Lancet Infect Dis. 2010;10: 862–874. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70190-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Oakeshott P, Aghaizu A, Reid F, Howell-Jones R, Hay PE, Sadiq ST, et al. Frequency and risk factors for prevalent, incident, and persistent genital carcinogenic human papillomavirus infection in sexually active women: community based cohort study. BMJ. 2012;344: e4168 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e4168 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roset Bahmanyar E, Paavonen J, Naud P, Salmerón J, Chow SN, Apter D, et al. Prevalence and risk factors for cervical HPV infection and abnormalities in young adult women at enrolment in the multinational PATRICIA trial. Gynecol Oncol. 2012;127: 440–450. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2012.08.033 - DOI - PubMed

Substances

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.
-