Improving HPV vaccination rates

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is a key vaccine for patients to get during late childhood and adolescence. However, not every patient starts or completes the vaccine series. A report in Pediatrics looks at the effectiveness of Development of Systems and Education for Human Papillomavirus Vaccination (DOSE HPV), a multilevel intervention.¹

The intervention is a program that runs 7 sessions and includes data feedback, communication training, tailored systems change, and interprofessional provider education. For the study, 5 primary care practices that were either pediatric or family medicine completed the intervention between 2016 and 2018. The 5 practices elected to initiate the HPV vaccination series at age 9 to 10 years. They then compared vaccination rates from the preintervention, intervention, and postintervention periods.

They found in the intervention and postintervention periods, the adjusted likelihood of HPV vaccination occurring at an eligible visit increased by >10 percentage points in children aged 9 to 10 years and 11 to 12 years. The completion of the vaccine series by age 13 years increased by 4 percentage points. Overall the population-level initiation coverage increased from 75% preintervention to 84% during intervention to 90% after the intervention. The completion increased from 60% preintervention to 63% during the intervention to 69% after the intervention.

Investigators concluded that the DOSE HPV intervention appears to improve both vaccine series initiation and completion during the intervention and that this effect continued after the intervention concluded.

Reference:

1. Perkins R, Legler A, Jansen E et al. Improving HPV vaccination rates: a stepped-wedge randomized trial. Pediatrics. 2020:145(6):e20192737. doi:10.1542/peds.2019-2737