40 Percent of Parents Fear HPV Vaccine Unsafe for Teens

Some things never change, and one of them includes the fear of, well, change. And if any change happens to enter the realm of sex or religion, citizens have been known to cause riots, gun conventions or wars in the name of God.

Well, it doesn't look like this time around people are jumping to that point quite yet, but uppity parents worried about their teen's sex drive and Sunday activities are against the human papillomavirus virus (HPV) vaccine. According to a new study, they don't think it's safe.

In an analysis of national survey data, more than 40 percent of parents reported in 2010 that they did not intend to vaccinate their adolescent female children with the HPV vaccine, according to Dr. Paul Darden of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City and colleagues.

At the same time, doctors are increasingly recommending the vaccine, the authors wrote in the April issue of Pediatrics. But there is no similar pattern for two other vaccines aimed at adolescents, Darden and colleagues reported.

Data from the National Immunization Survey of Teens from 2008 through 2010 suggests that there may be a "need for interventions beyond clinician recommendation," the researchers concluded, including such things as social marketing campaigns.

But Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University in Nashville said other reports have found hints of "provider hesitancy" that might still be playing a role.

"Pediatricians are letting it go in the early teens years and bringing it up only later," he said. "Then we're missing some teens because they tend not to see the doctor as frequently in the late teens as they do around 11, 12, and 13."

"Pediatricians really do need to continue to be vaccine advocates," he added.

The proportion of parents who replied they were worried about "safety concerns/side effects" rose from 4.5 percent in 2008 to 7.7 percent in 2009 to 16.4 percent in 2010.

In the last year, worry about safety and side effects approached the level of the most common reason -- "not needed or not necessary" -- at 17.4 percent.

Parents reported that their doctors increasingly recommended all vaccines, including the HPV medication, rising from 46.8 percent in 2008 to 52.4 percent in 2010.

Despite that, the intent to skip the HPV shots rose from 39.8 percent in 2008 to 43.9 percent in 2010, Darden and colleagues found.

The study had some limitations, according to ABC News. The cross-sectional survey compared three distinct cohorts across multiple years, and the authors focused their analyses on the parent survey and parental reporting without verifying vaccination status through the provider survey.