HPV vaccine is an infertility campaign: Exploring barriers towards maternal willingness to allow eligible daughters to be vaccinated with human papillomavirus vaccine in Nyaribari Masaba, Kisii County, Kenya.

Abstract

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is highly effective in preventing targeted HPV-related infections, including cervical cancer. In Kisii County, the vaccine is freely available, yet its uptake is low at 9% compare this to the national uptake and level of maternal willingness to allow their daughters be vaccinated was unknown. This study used a community-based cross-sectional approach to explore the barriers associated with mothers’ willingness to allow their daughters to be vaccinated against HPV among 24 mothers selected via purposive sampling. Data was collected using two focus group discussions and analyzed via thematic analysis. The majority of the mothers were aged between 20 and 29 years (13, 54.2%), had daughters aged 11 years (9, 37.5%), were married (21, 87.5%), had secondary education (15, 62.5%), and were practicing small-scale farming (8,33.3%) and Christians Catholic (11, 45.8%). The barriers hindering HPV vaccination were low perceived risk for HPV, HPV vaccine knowledge deficit, health provider practice level barriers, doubts about the efficacy of the vaccine and the sexually transmitted nature of the HPV. The findings reveal limited knowledge on the future effects of the HPV vaccine and limited health care provider recommendations for the vaccine and vaccine thought to encourage early sexual debut. There is a need for community-based education interventions for pre-vaccine sensitization to improve vaccine uptake and consequently reduce the cervical cancer burden.