Topics associated with conflict in print news coverage of the HPV vaccine during 2005 to 2009

Did the COVID-19 experience change U.S. parents' attitudes towards HPV vaccination? Results from a national survey

BACKGROUND

In the U.S., uptake of the HPV vaccine remains below coverage goals. There is concern that negative reactions to emergency initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccination, may have increased some parents' hesitancy towards all vaccines, including HPV. Understanding how different parent populations view routine vaccination post-pandemic is key to strategic efforts to maintaining and increasing uptake of HPV vaccine.

METHODS

In early 2022, we recruited an online panel of English-speaking U.S. parents and caregivers, who used the social media platform Twitter and had HPV vaccine-eligible but unvaccinated children age 9-14 years. Respondents completed a 20-minute survey measuring knowledge, attitudes and intentions regarding HPV vaccination for their child, as well as background socio-demographics and health information-seeking practices. Questions regarding experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic included changes in access to preventive care, and perceptions of whether pandemic experiences had positively or negatively affected their attitudes about routine vaccination, with open text capturing reasons for this change.

RESULTS

Among 557 respondents, 81 % were definitely or likely to vaccinate their child against HPV, with 12 % being uncertain, and 7 % unlikely to vaccinate. Regarding routine vaccination, most (70 %) felt their attitudes had not changed, while 26 % felt more positively, and only 4 % felt more negatively. Reasons for positive attitude change included increased appreciation for vaccines overall, and motivation to proactively seek preventive care for their child. Negative attitude changes stemmed from distrust of COVID-19 public health efforts including vaccine development, and disillusionment with vaccines' ability to prevent disease. In multivariable models, intention to vaccinate was greater among parents reporting greater education, Democratic affiliation, greater religiosity, and urban residence. Negative attitude change due to the pandemic independently predicted reduced HPV vaccination intention, while positive attitude change predicted positive intention.

CONCLUSIONS

Post-pandemic, most U.S. parents remain committed to vaccinating their children against HPV. However, addressing residual COVID-19 concerns could improve uptake among vaccine-hesitant parents.

Media Data and Vaccine Hesitancy: Scoping Review

Background

Media studies are important for vaccine hesitancy research, as they analyze how the media shapes risk perceptions and vaccine uptake. Despite the growth in studies in this field owing to advances in computing and language processing and an expanding social media landscape, no study has consolidated the methodological approaches used to study vaccine hesitancy. Synthesizing this information can better structure and set a precedent for this growing subfield of digital epidemiology.

Objective

This review aimed to identify and illustrate the media platforms and methods used to study vaccine hesitancy and how they build or contribute to the study of the media's influence on vaccine hesitancy and public health.

Methods

This study followed the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. A search was conducted on PubMed and Scopus for any studies that used media data (social media or traditional media), had an outcome related to vaccine sentiment (opinion, uptake, hesitancy, acceptance, or stance), were written in English, and were published after 2010. Studies were screened by only 1 reviewer and extracted for media platform, analysis method, the theoretical models used, and outcomes.

Results

In total, 125 studies were included, of which 71 (56.8%) used traditional research methods and 54 (43.2%) used computational methods. Of the traditional methods, most used content analysis (43/71, 61%) and sentiment analysis (21/71, 30%) to analyze the texts. The most common platforms were newspapers, print media, and web-based news. The computational methods mostly used sentiment analysis (31/54, 57%), topic modeling (18/54, 33%), and network analysis (17/54, 31%). Fewer studies used projections (2/54, 4%) and feature extraction (1/54, 2%). The most common platforms were Twitter and Facebook. Theoretically, most studies were weak. The following five major categories of studies arose: antivaccination themes centered on the distrust of institutions, civil liberties, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and vaccine-specific concerns; provaccination themes centered on ensuring vaccine safety using scientific literature; framing being important and health professionals and personal stories having the largest impact on shaping vaccine opinion; the coverage of vaccination-related data mostly identifying negative vaccine content and revealing deeply fractured vaccine communities and echo chambers; and the public reacting to and focusing on certain signals-in particular cases, deaths, and scandals-which suggests a more volatile period for the spread of information.

Conclusions

The heterogeneity in the use of media to study vaccines can be better consolidated through theoretical grounding. Areas of suggested research include understanding how trust in institutions is associated with vaccine uptake, how misinformation and information signaling influence vaccine uptake, and the evaluation of government communications on vaccine rollouts and vaccine-related events. The review ends with a statement that media data analyses, though groundbreaking in approach, should supplement-not supplant-current practices in public health research.

The Effect of Science-Related Populism on Vaccination Attitudes and Decisions

As the COVID-19 pandemic has sadly shown, the decision against vaccination is often linked to political ideologies and populist messages among specific segments of the population: People do not only have concerns about a potential health risk associated with vaccination but seem to have also adopted more populist attitudes towards science. In this study, the relationship between science-related populism and individuals' attitudes towards vaccination was examined, presuming that scientific-related populism also influences individual responses towards different vaccinations. As different types of diseases and their vaccines might be perceived rather distinctively by the public, different vaccinations were considered. The survey is based on responses from 870 people from Germany and Austria. Results indicate that science-related populism influences responses towards some vaccination types, especially for those that receive extensive media coverage such as COVID-19 and measles (MMR). There was no significant impact of science-related populism on individuals' vaccination intentions for other vaccines like seasonal influenza, human papillomavirus, or tick-borne encephalitis. In conclusion, limitations and directions for future research are addressed.

Exploring the relationship between newspaper coverage of vaccines and childhood vaccination rates in Spain

Background: Despite the effectiveness of vaccines being well established and recognized by the research community, eleven European countries have adopted mandatory vaccination programs because of vaccine hesitancy. Lack of information and fake news are considered the main reasons. The media are a powerful tool for spreading vaccine-related information. The study of media effects on vaccine uptake has received little attention in Europe.Objective: To explore the association of childhood vaccination rates in Spain with vaccine-related coverage in print media.Methods: A content analysis of newspaper coverage of vaccines was conducted. The study variables were: national vaccination rates, article publication dates, tone and main theme of the articles. We conducted a correlation analysis to assess the association between media coverage and childhood vaccine uptake.Results: While vaccine coverage with positive and neutral tones significantly increased during the study period (p < .001), the number of articles with a negative tone remained unchanged (p = .306). There was a significant and inverse correlation between negative newspaper coverage and childhood vaccine uptake (r = -.771, p < .05). During 2016 and 2017, although the media reporting declined, vaccination rates kept increasing. The most frequent themes were about the development of the Ebola vaccine, and the chickenpox and meningitis vaccine crises.Conclusions: Our findings expand the understanding of media role on vaccination and suggest that the media need to be considered as an important player during vaccination campaigns. The study points to the important educational role of the media in public health.

Newspaper coverage before and after the HPV vaccination crisis began in Japan: a text mining analysis

Background

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage rate has fallen sharply in Japan since 2013, when newspapers began covering negative campaigns against the vaccination. We examined and compared contents from newspaper articles before and after the start of this HPV vaccination crisis.

Methods

We collected articles published between January 2005 and September 2017 in the four daily national Japanese newspapers with the highest domestic circulation. We then conducted text mining analysis to chronologically examine content distribution.

Results

From among the 1178 articles analyzed, 12 types of contents were identified. Contents related to cervical cancer prevention, such as on the risk of developing cervical cancer, causes of cervical cancer, and the effects of vaccination, were frequently conveyed until 2012. However, after March 2013, they were replaced with anti-vaccination contents, such as on adverse effects to vaccines, alleged victims, and related lawsuits. Meanwhile pro-vaccination contents, such as safety statements from the World Health Organization, scarcely received coverage.

Conclusions

Newspaper contents changed profoundly before and after the start of the vaccination crisis. Those newspaper reports potentially had impact on readers’ beliefs and actions. Journalists should strive for impartial coverage so readers can make more-informed decisions. Health professionals should be expected to work with journalists to help improve impartiality in newspaper coverage. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare should discus benefits and risks of the HPV vaccination based on the scientific evidences, and consider to resume the proactive recommendation of HPV vaccination. Well-organized advocacy among medical societies, scientists and health professionals will also be needed to influence the government.

The Use of Traditional Media for Public Communication about Medicines: A Systematic Review of Characteristics and Outcomes

A systematic review was conducted to identify, appraise, and synthesize data from original research investigating the use of traditional media for public communication about medicines. Databases were searched for studies conducting quantitative or qualitative analyses between the years 2007 and 2017. Data extraction and assessment of the quality of the resulting studies was conducted by one reviewer and checked for accuracy by a second reviewer. A total of 57 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies were grouped as follows: "newspapers and other print media" (n = 42), "television" (n = 9), and "radio and a combination of media" (n = 6). Content analysis (n = 34) was the most frequent research design, followed by surveys or interviews (n = 14) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (n = 9). Advertising, public awareness, and health administration were the most common themes, and the medicines most analyzed were vaccines, particularly human papillomavirus (HPV) and influenza. Studies conducted in the United States were the most frequent, followed by other high-income countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. The lack of consistent studies of the effects of media campaigns stresses the importance of the use of standardized research methodologies. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for further research are discussed.

How is communication of vaccines in traditional media: a systematic review

AIM:

Taking into account that a key determinant in public approval of vaccinations is how the media constructs and frames messages about vaccination programmes, our aim is to review communication studies exploring media coverage of vaccines within traditional media venues.

METHODS:

Using a registered protocol (PROSPERO: 42017072849), a systematic review was conducted that searched in three international electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and the International Bibliography of Social Science) for articles published between 2007 and 2017 following content-analysis methods. The characteristics and outcomes were systematically identified and described. The search yielded 24 eligible studies that were further analysed in the review.

RESULTS:

Media coverage of vaccines has been largely studied during the last decade. Findings revealed that 62% ( n = 15) of studies analysed the human papillomavirus vaccine, 87% ( n = 21) examined newspapers, and 62% ( n = 15) examined North American media. In relation to media content analyses, 75% found negative messages on vaccines and 83% identified a lack of accurate information.

CONCLUSIONS:

This systematic review suggests an agenda for further research. There is a significant need to analyse other types of traditional media beyond newspapers. Future studies should focus on other geographical areas such as low-income countries and on analysing visual materials and digital media. We found that negative messages and inaccurate information are common in media coverage on vaccines; therefore, further research focusing on these topics is needed. Officials in public health organizations should develop a close collaboration with the media to improve public communication on vaccines.

Understanding the role of the news media in HPV vaccine uptake in the United States: Synthesis and commentary

Vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine fall below targets and only 2 states and the District of Columbia require the vaccine for middle school-age children. Messages conveyed through news media-to parents, providers, policymakers, and the general public-may contribute to sluggish vaccination rates and policy action. In this commentary, we review the findings from 13 published studies of news media coverage of the HPV vaccine in the United States since FDA licensure in 2006. We find 2 important themes in news coverage: a rising focus on political controversy and a consistent emphasis on the vaccine as for girls, even beyond the point when the vaccine was recommended for boys. These political and gendered messages have consequences for public understanding of the vaccine. Future research should continue to monitor news media depictions of the HPV vaccine to assess whether political controversy will remain a pronounced theme of coverage or whether the media ultimately depict the vaccine as a routine public health service.

A comparative analysis of how the media in the United Kingdom and India represented the emergence of NDM-1

Research papers on New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM-1) provoked considerable but very different media coverage in the United Kingdom (UK) and India. We describe how the media represented this research using qualitative thematic analysis of contemporary coverage by daily newspapers in the UK and India. Fifty-four UK and 187 Indian articles mentioned NDM-1, describing it as the 'new super superbug' resistant to most antibiotics. They emphasised the role of medical tourism to the Indian subcontinent. In both countries, blame was framed abstractly as arising from the general misuse of antibiotics. In India, controversy about using New Delhi to name the organism dominated coverage, with officials seeking to discredit the two studies and media coverage characterised by denial and outrage, developing into theories of conspiracies to undermine tourism. Researchers must seek to anticipate the way that their work may be reported and proactively engage with the media to maximise the public health impact of their findings.