There is substantial room for improvement in how primary care doctors communicate about and deliver the human papillomavirus(HPV) vaccine, according to a national survey of pediatricians and family practitioners. And a survey of US adults shows that few understand the link between HPV and cancer. Published online today in Pediatrics, the snapshot of HPV vaccine practices and experiences of among 302 pediatricians and 228 family physicians (FPs) finds that many doctors likely hinder uptake by being less than ideally assertive when raising the issue of HPV vaccination with parents of adolescent patients.
What's lacking is a "presumptive" style, in which the doctor makes an announcement that assumes parents are ready to vaccinate their children, vs a conversational style that engages parents in an open-ended discussion. Although the former approach has been shown to increase vaccination in…
