Memorable Messages of the HPV Vaccine and Their Impact on Behavior

• In Event: HIGH-DENSITY: Effects of Public Information on Health Outcomes

Abstract

Mass health communication campaigns have been successfully assessed with the memorable messages framework, yet it has not been applied in the context of the human papillomavirus (HPV). Memorable messages (MMs) are defined as communications that are well remembered and have an impact on the listener. Survey data were collected from 131 students. Of the participants, 63.4% recalled an HPVMM advertisement while 96.9% recalled an HPVMM conversation. For advertising, materials in doctors’ offices (32.1%) were the most frequently reported sources, followed by television (20.6%), while doctors (45.8%) and friends (16%) were the most frequently reported conversations. Preliminary thematic analysis yielded evidence for all four topics representing knowledge of the disease: awareness, prevention, detection, and treatment, in line with Smith et al.’s work on breast cancer information (2009), with evidence for a fifth topic: normalization. Although mediated sources primarily contained messages of awareness, conversational sources tended to discuss prevention.

Authors

• Calandra Jean Lindstadt, The University of Texas at Austin

• Billy Table, The U of Texas at Austin