Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Apr 11, 2025
Date Accepted: Oct 20, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
Parental knowledge and health beliefs of HPV vaccination in Kuwait - Using the Health Belief Model in Quantitative Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, known as the cervical cancer (CC) vaccine, is a preventative measure for girls and boys aged 9-26 to protect against CC and other HPV-related diseases. This study assesses the knowledge and various health beliefs of the Health Belief Model (HBM) regarding HPV and the HPV vaccine to develop a health promotion policy strategy in Kuwait.
Objective:
This study assesses the knowledge and various health beliefs of the Health Belief Model (HBM) regarding HPV and the HPV vaccine to develop a health promotion policy strategy in Kuwait.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 538 parents of children aged 12–17 in Kuwait. The survey was structured using the HBM. Analysis showed statistically significant links between knowledge, several health beliefs concepts, and vaccination intention.
Results:
55.6% of parents have poor knowledge about HPV and vaccination, with lower perceived susceptibility being more prevalent in parents with female children. Higher parental education levels are linked to higher perceived susceptibility beliefs. Parents with female children have a lower perception of HPV infection severity. 72% of parents perceive barriers to HPV vaccination for CC prevention, with stigma and Kuwaiti culture being key barriers. 1.6 times higher perception of barrier to HPV vaccination in parents with female children. 52% of parents perceive high benefits of HPV vaccination, with male parents having a higher perception. Parents with female children are 1.34 times more likely to act on recommendations for HPV vaccination.
Conclusions:
The Kuwaiti vaccination policy for HPV should consider parental knowledge levels, educational backgrounds, stigma, and health beliefs regarding susceptibility for daughters and sons, as well as the impact of promiscuity and other barriers.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.