Multiple Messaging Strategies for Increasing HPV Vaccination Intentions among English- and Spanish-Speaking Parents in the United States and Mexico

Abstract

The reported study compared the impact of four influence strategies (agency assignment, enhanced active choice, deviance regulation marking, and temporal framing) on English- and Spanish-speaking parents’ reported intention to vaccinate their children for HPV. An online experiment was conducted to examine the impact of the strategies. In a fractional factorial design, participating parents (N = 1663) were exposed to combinations of influence strategies in text messages presented as reminders they might receive from a healthcare provider about their child’s eligibility for the vaccine series. The results indicated small but significant impacts of agency assignment, enhanced active choice, and deviance regulation marking on parents’ reported vaccination intentions. The study adds to the research literature on HPV vaccination communication in two important respects. First, it demonstrated how incorporating evidence-based influence strategies into reminder messages can increase parents’ vaccination intentions, an important precursor and predictor of actual vaccine uptake. Second, it sets an important precedent by examining the effects of influence strategies on vaccination intentions across different languages.