An exploratory study of adolescent female reactions to direct-to-consumer advertising: the case of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine

Social Media Communication about HPV Vaccine in China: A Study Using Topic Modeling and Survey

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is relatively novel to people in China. Social media is becoming an important channel for learning new health information. However, limited is known about what HPV vaccine information has been disseminated on social media, and how such online information is associated with health-related behaviors in China. Based on Longo et al.'s model of patient use of healthcare information for healthcare decision, and Longo's model of health information seeking behaviors, this study examined HPV vaccine-related information type and information acquisition pattern. Following the mixed-methods approach, we first crawled 67,773 postings about HPV vaccine on Weibo, the largest microblogging website in China, and performed topic modeling to identify HPV vaccine-related topics that are prevalent on Weibo. The results showed six major topics about HPV vaccine, namely policy, guidance information, advertising, scandals, personal experience sharing, and HPV risks. Second, we conducted an online survey (n = 1,982) to investigate how scanning, seeking, and discussing the six HPV vaccine topics identified from big data analytics can affect HPV vaccine knowledge, safety concern, and vaccination intention. We documented significant impacts of social media health communication on users' health knowledge, attitude and behavioral intention.

HPV prevention is not just for girls: an examination of college-age-students' adoption of HPV vaccines

This study identifies source(s) of information young adults found to be persuasive in choosing/declining HPV vaccines. The results indicate that males are not getting HPV vaccination information from either their physician, parent, or DTC advertising. Females reported that physicians and their mothers were the most influential sources of information. Additionally, females found that risk message frames focusing on empowerment, reduced dread, control and benefit in the DTC HPV vaccine advertisements were persuasive; males did not. With the rapid rise of HPV related cancers found in males, there is a need to inform males and their parents about for HPV vaccines.

Vaccine promotion: impact of risk level on attitudes

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of personal relevance, source credibility and advertising appeal type on the emotional and cognitive processing of a direct to consumer pharmaceutical ad for a meningitis vaccine.

Design/methodology/approach

A 2 × 2 experiment was used, and path analysis was undertaken to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Resultant models indicated that unvaccinated (more at risk) and vaccinated (less at risk) participants are persuaded through different pathways. More specifically, vaccinated participants rely more on message credibility than creative strategy to form their cognitive evaluation of the message, whereas non-vaccinated subjects’ cognitive evaluations of the message depend on creative strategy (advertising appeal type) more than message credibility. Differences between individuals who were certain of the vaccine status and those who were not certain of their vaccine status were also apparent. Implications and areas for future research are also presented.

Practical implications

When using direct to consumer pharmaceutical ad for a vaccine, advertisers should take into account the perceived risk level of and relevance to audience members.

Originality/value

Personal relevance and risk are issues which impact the effectiveness of different types of advertising appeals, but less prior research has focused on this aspect of the target audience for direct to pharmaceutical vaccine advertisements.

How does objective and subjective human papillomavirus knowledge affect information-seeking intentions and source preferences?

This study examines the effects of objective (factual information) and subjective knowledge (an individual's self-assessment of how much knowledge they have) on information-seeking intentions and source preferences. It explores the human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge inequalities in groups of young adults age 18-26 years with and without vaccinations and diagnosis, and different demographics/socio-economic and perceptions of health status. Higher subjective HPV knowledge leads to greater information-seeking intentions from family/friends and mass media but not from health professionals and the Internet. Objective HPV knowledge did not matter for information seeking. The important role of demographics/socio-economic and perceived health status is also discussed.

Risk perceptions, sexual attitudes, and sexual behavior after HPV vaccination in 11-12 year-old girls

OBJECTIVES

Among 11-12 year-old girls who received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, we explored, over the subsequent 30 months: (1) trajectories of knowledge about HPV/HPV vaccines and vaccine-related risk perceptions; (2) whether knowledge and risk perceptions impacted sexual attitudes and sexual experience; (3) whether mothers, clinicians, and media influenced girls' risk perceptions, attitudes, and behavior.

METHODS

Girls and mothers (n=25dyads) completed separate, semi-structured interviews within 2 days of, and 6, 18, and 30 months after, their first HPV vaccine dose. Knowledge, risk perceptions related to HPV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and attitudes about sexual behaviors were assessed. Sexual experience was assessed at girls' 30 month interviews. Clinicians completed interviews at baseline. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using framework analysis.

RESULTS

Girls' baseline knowledge was poor but often improved with time. Most girls (n=18) developed accurate risk perceptions about HPV but only half (n=12) developed accurate risk perceptions about other STIs by 30 months. The vast majority of girls thought that safer sex was still important, regardless of knowledge, risk perceptions, or sexual experience. Girls whose HPV knowledge was high at baseline or increased over time tended to articulate accurate risk perceptions; those who were able to articulate accurate risk perceptions tended to report not having initiated sexual activity. Girls whose mothers demonstrated higher knowledge and/or communication about HPV vaccination tended to articulate accurate risk perceptions, whereas clinicians and media exposure did not appear to influence risk perceptions.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher knowledge about HPV vaccines among mothers and girls was linked with more accurate risk perceptions among girls. Clinicians may play an important role in providing education about HPV vaccines to mothers and girls.

Exploring the role of ethnic identity on the attitudes towards HPV vaccine advertising among Puerto Ricans: a qualitative analysis

Despite the existence of guidelines recommending vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) and widespread availability of the vaccine through the Vaccines for Children program, HPV vaccination rates among island Puerto Ricans are suboptimal. Advertising plays a central role in promoting HPV vaccination by increasing awareness of and knowledge about the vaccine; however, little is known about the influence of cultural factors on the impact of HPV messages delivered through the media. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the role of ethnic identity on the attitudes towards HPV vaccine advertising among island Puerto Ricans. Five focus groups (n = 23) were conducted with parents and non-vaccinated females. Our analysis found several themes that may influence attitudes towards HPV vaccine advertising among this population: physical ethnic similarity, relevance of information, and sociocultural congruence. Findings may assist in developing culturally appropriate health promotion programs and media to promote HPV vaccination among Puerto Ricans.

Knowledge of human papillomavirus (HPV) and HPV vaccination: an international comparison

Since vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) became available, awareness of HPV has dramatically increased. Implementation of a vaccine program varies internationally yet no studies have explored the influence this has on the public's knowledge of HPV. The present study aimed to explore differences in awareness of HPV and HPV knowledge across three countries: The US, UK and Australia. Participants (n=2409) completed a validated measure of HPV knowledge as part of an online survey. There were higher levels of HPV awareness among men and women in the US than the UK and Australia. Being male and having a lower educational level was associated with lower HPV awareness in all three countries. Awareness of HPV vaccine was higher in women from the US than the UK and Australia. Women in the US scored significantly higher on general HPV knowledge (on a 15-item scale) than women in the UK and Australia, but there were no between country differences in HPV vaccine knowledge (on a 6-item scale). When asked about country-specific vaccine availability, participants in the US were less able to identify the correct answers than participants in the UK and Australia. More than half of participants did not know: HPV can cause genital warts; most sexually active people will get HPV at some point in their life; or HPV doesn't usually need treatment. Pharmaceutical advertising campaigns could explain why awareness of HPV and HPV vaccine is higher in the US and this has helped to get some important messages across. Significant gaps in HPV knowledge remain across all three countries.

Which factors drive product sales in OTC markets?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine sales drivers for different OTC product categories.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses data from both consumer and retail panels, which are gathered for various product categories. These long‐term data are analyzed per product category with two specific regression models, mainly time‐series analysis with VAR models and Shapley value regression.

Findings

It is found that purchase intention drives sales a lot in general. Besides, it is very important to distinguish seasonal vs non‐seasonal markets. The trend coefficient, which implies the stage of maturity of the market, indicates more or less saturated markets for the examples. The proposed models can be easily applied to different OTC categories without a lot of customization.

Research limitations/implications

The study does not take into account different outlets (e.g. online, supermarkets) and does not estimate interaction effects between the single drivers.

Practical implications

The paper provides the market researcher with a guideline on how to proceed to model OTC product categories, e.g. which data are to be used, which models are to be estimated, which conclusions can be drawn.

Originality/value

The study develops an analysis approach which is readily applicable to different OTC product categories, which exhibit very distinct market characteristics. The advantage of this approach is that it applies a standardized tool kit of methods to analyze highly varying markets.