Parents CAN be persuaded to give daughters cervical cancer jab

The Guardian recently published an article stating that "1 in 5 parents refuse daughters' cervical cancer jab". You may not be aware that this refers to the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine which prevents cervical cancer. An immunisation programme will be rolled out in schools to all Year 8 (ie 12-13 year-old) girls this autumn.

To key to ensuring maximum take-up is getting parental consent. The research quoted, is based on a phone survey of @2000 parents and shows that there is a clear body of work to be done to raise public confidence in immunisation. Our own research confirms this but also provides the solution to raising confidence!

We have been using a social marketing approach in Barnsley, to test awareness of HPV vaccine among parents and adolescents but also to gain insight into the behaviours and attitudes of parents and young women so that we can develop a targeted communications programme that will get 90% take-up of this vaccine in Barnsley.

The results were fascinating (e-mail me at aline@thecampaigncompany.co.uk if you want to find out the details) but the key finding in Barnsley was as follows. If you give parents the right information AND you engage them in conversation about the issue then they WILL consent to their daughters having the vaccine. The only circumstances they would refuse would be if there were any doubts about the side-effects. So that's the way forward - reassure and engage parents in the right way. If we use this approach, 400 lives a year will be saved.