An Investigation of Parent-son-provider Decision-making About HPV Vaccination

This protocol will involve individual semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 parent-son dyads and 20 pediatric health care providers. Parent-son pairs will be recruited from IUMG primary care adolescent health clinics. Recruitment will occur and consent/assent for participation obtained during the visit with the health care provider, with the physician out of the room. Interviews with parents and sons will take place after the health care appointment and after HPV vaccine acceptance/refusal. Parents and sons will be administered a brief questionnaire that will cover socio-demographic and other background information. The parent-son interviews will be separate, simultaneous one-on-one ethnographic interviews (30-60 min) that focus on the decision making process regarding HPV vaccination (yes/no). Each interview will consist of 8-10 open-ended questions, serving as an elicitation device. Sample questions include: (1) Tell me what you understand about the HPV vaccine? (2) Tell me what happened when you were in the examination room and your doctor asked you and your parent/son about getting the vaccine? (3) Was the decision made quickly, or did you have a conversation about it first? (4) Who had the most influence on the decision, you or your parent/son? (5) Why did you decide to get (or not to get) the vaccine? The interviewer will ask participants to elaborate on the meaning and contexts of their responses, and look for organization in what the participant is saying, developing and testing hypotheses during the interview. Each interview will be conducted by a trained, gender-matched research assistant.

Health care providers will be interviewed at a different time, and the interviews (25-30 min) will focus on HPV vaccine related attitudes, supply, costs, communication and perceived benefits associated with vaccinating adolescent males, rather than care to specific patients. Sample questions include: (1) How do you inform patients about the HPV vaccine? (2) What is the specific wording that you use when you offer HPV vaccine? Be very specific. Don't leave out any detail.