Overview of human papillomavirus vaccination policy changes and its impact in the United States: Lessons learned and challenges for the future

Deogwoon Kim, Haeok Lee, Minjin Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: The HPV vaccination is effective and safe for preventing HPV infection and HPV attributable cancers. Despite this fact, the uptake rate of the vaccination in the United States has remained below the national target of 80%. Health policy focused on allocating resources and creating vaccine-promoting environments can influence HPV vaccination coverage rates. There is a scarcity of information about the HPV vaccination-related health policy and its impact on the outcome of vaccine uptake. Method: We conducted a comprehensive review of HPV vaccination-related health policies at the federal, state, and professional organization levels and examined their impact on population health by reviewing national data on HPV vaccination uptake rates. Results: The review revealed that (a) HPV vaccination recommendations, which serve as the federal-level HPV vaccination policy, have changed frequently in terms of gender, age criteria, and dosing schedule, and (b) the frequent changes of the policy have resulted in low uptake rates among male and young adult populations. Discussion: The uptake rate should be continuously followed to evaluate the impact of recent changes to the federal-level HPV vaccination policy. State-level policies and healthcare professionals, including nurses, are important to the promotion of HPV vaccinations and decreasing HPV vaccination disparities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)396-405
Number of pages10
JournalPublic Health Nursing
Volume38
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2021

Keywords

  • Papillomavirus vaccine
  • health policy
  • immunization
  • policy implementation
  • population health

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Nursing
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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