Currently accepted at: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Sep 5, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 8, 2025 - Nov 3, 2025
Date Accepted: Mar 3, 2026
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
This paper has been accepted and is currently in production.
It will appear shortly on 10.2196/83558
The final accepted version (not copyedited yet) is in this tab.
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited.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.
HPV Vaccine Conversations on Reddit (2016–2025): Shifts in Public Sentiment and Themes in the COVID-19 Era
ABSTRACT
Background:
The HPV vaccine is a key preventative tool against HPV-related cancers, yet vaccination rate remains at 66% in the U.S. As social media becomes an increasingly popular avenue for health discussions, platforms like Reddit offer unique opportunities to understand public sentiment and discourse surrounding vaccination. This study analyzed HPV vaccine-related discussions on Reddit to examine evolving themes and sentiment, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objective:
This study aimed to analyze HPV vaccine-related discussions on Reddit to (1) identify dominant discussion themes, (2) assess overall sentiment toward the HPV vaccine, and (3) examine changes in themes and sentiment before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
A Python-based script was used to scrape Reddit posts and comments referencing the HPV vaccine from multiple subreddits between 2016 and 2025. Posts were manually labeled as either intentional or incidental, with intentional entries further categorized into ten thematic groups. Sentiment analysis was conducted using the VADER algorithm. Temporal trends were assessed using pre- and post-COVID-19 stratification. Chi-square tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, and linear regression were used for statistical analysis.
Results:
Of 4,235 collected entries, 2,801 were included in the final analysis. The most common themes were factual claims (25.1%), personal experiences (20.4%), and offering advice (16.6%). Sentiment shifted significantly post-COVID, with positive sentiment increasing from 44.6% to 52.4% (P=.01). Themes related to vaccine hesitancy and cultural influences shifted from negative to neutral sentiment, though not statistically significant. Median time from post to first comment was 136 minutes, suggesting high engagement.
Conclusions:
HPV vaccine discourse on Reddit has become more positive and experience-driven over time. These insights underscore Reddit’s role in shaping health perceptions and offer opportunities for targeted public health engagement in the digital age.
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.