KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns and neighborhood-level disparities in HPV vaccination rates among Texas adolescents.
- Researchers noticed that HPV vaccination rates are higher in lower-income areas and lower among male adolescents.
HPV is responsible for most cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, vaginal, and vulvar cancers. The HPV vaccine has decreased cervical cancer incidence, but only 49% of Texas adolescents have initiated the vaccine. Texas shows great variation in HPV vaccination rates.
Ryan Ramphul and the team used geospatial analysis to identify areas with high and low vaccination rates and explored differences in neighborhood characteristics.
They performed an inclusive analysis using Anselin’s Local Moran’s I statistic to identify hot and cold spots of adolescent HPV vaccination coverage in Texas from 2017 to 2021. They conducted an ecological study, analyzing vaccination data and comparing neighborhood characteristics between hot spots and cold spots.
Utilizing the Mann-Whitney U test, investigators examined data from the Child Opportunity Index (COI) and American Community Survey to explore disparities in vaccination coverage among different communities.
About 64 persistent vaccination coverage hotspots and 55 persistent vaccination coverage cold spots were identified in Texas. The persistent vaccination coverage hotspots are characterized by ZIP codes with lower COI scores, higher percentages of Hispanic residents, higher poverty rates, and smaller populations per square mile compared to vaccine coverage cold spots.
A more pronounced spatial clustering pattern for male adolescent vaccine coverage was found than for female adolescent vaccine coverage.
The study concluded that HPV vaccination coverage rates in Texas vary based on community income levels, with lower-income areas achieving higher success rates. Additionally, gender-based discrepancies were observed, with male adolescents having lower vaccination rates. This knowledge can assist advocates in tailoring outreach initiatives to effectively address these disparities.
The study received no funds.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38983249/
Ramphul R, Zamorano AS, Upadhyay S, et al. (2024). “Spatiotemporal analysis of HPV vaccination and associated neighborhood-level disparities in Texas-an ecological study.” Front Public Health. 2024 Jun 25;12:1418526. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1418526. PMID: 38983249; PMCID: PMC11232525.
