Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 25, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Feb 25, 2022 - Apr 22, 2022
Date Accepted: Oct 19, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Countering Antivax Misinformation via Social Media: Message-Testing Experiment for HPV Vaccination Uptake
ABSTRACT
Background:
Suboptimal adolescent HPV vaccination rates have been attributed to parental perceptions of HPV vaccine. The Internet has been cited as a setting where misinformation and controversy about HPV vaccination have been amplified.
Objective:
To test message effectiveness in changing parents’ attitudes and behavioral intention toward HPV vaccination.
Methods:
We conducted a message testing experiment online with 25 experimental messages and six control messages. Among 1,713 participants recruited via social media and crowdsourcing sites, 1,043 eligible parents completed pre-test survey questionnaires. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the 31 messages that simulated social media postings and asked to complete post-test survey questionnaires that assessed attitudes toward the vaccine, perceived effectiveness of the viewed message, and behavioral intention to vaccinate their child(ren) against HPV.
Results:
Parents in the experiment group increased positive attitudes toward HPV vaccination compared to those in the control group (t=3.03, p=.003), which was associated with increased intention to vaccinate (r=1.14, p=.05). We identified four themes that were relatively effective in increasing behavioral intentions by positively influencing attitudes toward the HPV vaccine (RMSEA=.014, CFI =.91, SRMR=.031). Messages that provided scientific evidence from government-related sources (e.g., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and corrected misinformation were effective in forming positive attitudes and credibility toward HPV vaccination.
Conclusions:
Messages countering misinformation and promoting HPV vaccination in social media environments can positively influence parents’ attitudes and behavioral intentions to vaccinate their child(ren) against HPV. Clinical Trial: NCT03747302
Citation
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Copyright
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