HPV Vaccination Rates in College Women

It’s been more than three years since the FDA approved Gardasil, the vaccine against the sexually transmitted Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that is responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. How is the vaccine being accepted by young college-age women?

To find out, researchers conducted a survey of 972 female college students at a large Midwestern state university. Most of the women were freshmen or sophomores. Sixty-five % of the women reported being sexually active, and by the Spring of 2009 57% had already received at least the first of the three shots required by the vaccination protocol for Gardasil. (The vaccine was available on request at the university student health center, at a cost of $360).

Vaccination coverage of 57% in this age group within three years of vaccine availability is welcome news, considering that these college-age women were already 15 or 16 years old when the vaccine first became available. Current recommendations are that girls should be vaccinated as early as 11-12 years of age. Significantly, young women who believed that their mothers would approve of their receiving the vaccine were more likely to have been vaccinated or to have an interest in being vaccinated.

More than a third of the women reported having had three or more sexual partners, and over 25% had had vaginal sex with a casual partner (not a serious or steady dating partner) without using protection against sexually transmitted diseases. All the more reason they should be vaccinated…