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The purpose of this paper is to explore incarcerated women's awareness, beliefs, and experiences with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and vaccination.

Researchers conducted focus groups with 45 incarcerated women in an urban Midwestern US jail to assess how women talked about their Papanicolaou (Pap) test screening and abnormal Pap test follow-up experiences. Some focus group questions specifically assessed individual awareness, beliefs, and experiences with HPV infection and vaccination. Based on these data, the authors described participants’ awareness of HPV, as well as used open coding to ultimately extract themes related to beliefs and experiences with HPV infection and vaccine.

While all 45 participants reported experiencing an abnormal Pap test event within the last five years, only two-thirds of participants (n=30) reported having heard of the HPV infection. Several themes emerged from the analysis of the data: the women's beliefs about cause and severity of HPV; frustration with age requirements of the vaccine; varied experiences with vaccinations for themselves and their children; the impact of media exposure on knowledge; and desire for more HPV infection and vaccine information.

Incarcerated women's awareness and limited experiences with HPV infection and vaccination may be a barrier to adequate screening and cervical cancer prevention. This study has implications for the development of cervical health education for this high-risk group of women, who are four to five times as likely to have cervical cancer as non-incarcerated women.

The purpose of this paper is to present a three-part framework of information engagement for situated gynecological cancers. These particular cancers intertwine with medicalization of sexuality and gender power dynamics, situating information behaviors and interactions in women’s socio-health perceptions. Using Kavanagh and Broom’s feminist risk framework, the framework establishes functional and temporal parameters for sense-making and information engagement.

This paper employs a structured, reiterative literature review with emergent thematic analysis. Nine indices from medicine, information studies, and sociology were searched using combinations of five terms on cervical cancer (CC) and 14 terms on information engagement in the title, abstract, and subject fields. Results were examined on a reiterative basis to identify emergent themes pertaining to knowledge development and information interactions.

Environmentally, social stigma and gender roles inhibit information seeking; normalizing CC helps integrate medical, moral, and sexual information. Internally, living with the dichotomy between “having” a body and “being” a body requires high-trust information resources that are presented gradually. Actively, choosing to make or cede medical decision-making requires personally relevant information delivered in the form of concrete facts and explanations.

The study covers only one country.

This study’s information framework and suggestions for future research encourage consideration of gender power dynamics, medicalization of sexuality, and autonomy in women’s health information interactions.

This review aims to provide synoptic documentation on acclaimed anecdotal plant-based remedies used by Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) communities to manage COVID-19. The theoretical approaches that form the basis for using the anecdotally claimed phytotherapies were reviewed against current scientific evidence.

In this paper plant-based remedies for managing COVID-19 were searched on social and print media to identify testimonies of people from different communities in LAC countries. Information was extracted, evaluated and reviewed against current scientific evidence based on a literature search from databases such as Journal Storage (JSTOR), Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), SpringerLink, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline to explore the scientific basis for anecdotal claims.

A total of 23 medicinal plants belonging to 15 families were identified as phytotherapies used in managing COVID-19 in LAC communities.

The plant-based remedies contained valuable phytochemicals scientifically reported for their anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant and anticancer effects. Anecdotal information helps researchers investigate disease patterns, management and new drug discoveries. The identified acclaimed plant-based remedies are potential candidates for pharmacological evaluations for possible drug discovery for future pandemics.

The use of social media has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media platforms provide opportunities to share news, ideas and personal stories. Twitter is used by citizens in Pakistan to respond and comment on emerging news stories and events. However, it is not known whether Twitter played a positive or negative role in spreading updates and preventive messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study is to analyse content from Twitter during the pandemic.

NodeXL was used to retrieve data using the keyword وائرس کورونا (written in Urdu and which translates to Coronavirus). The first data set (Case Study 1) was based on 10,284 Twitter users from the end of March. The second data set (Case Study 2) was based on 10,644 Twitter users from the start of April. The theoretical lens of effective message framing was used to classify the most retweeted content on Twitter.

Twitter was used for personal and professional projections and included certain tweets included political motives even during the unfolding health crisis. There appeared to be very few successful attempts to use Twitter as a tool for health awareness and risk communication. The empirical findings indicate that the most retweeted messages were gain-framed and can be classified as personal, informative and political in nature.

The present study provides insights likely to be of interest to researchers, health organizations, citizens, government and politicians that are interested in making more effective use of social media for the purposes of health promotion. The authors also provide novel insights into the key topics of discussions, websites and hashtags used by Pakistani Twitter users during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand what influences the intentions of college students to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the USA and cancers related to HPV are on the rise.

A 2×2 experimental design was used to predict the intentions. Messages were created that manipulated the level of severity and vulnerability to determine which would increase intentions to receive the HPV vaccine. Each of the 278 participants viewed a message that contained one severity message (high or low) and one vulnerability message (high or low).

Regression was used to determine that elements of the protection motivation theory such as vulnerability and fear, along with norms, and information seeking explained a significant portion of the variance in intent to be vaccinated (R2=0.40, F(4, 268)=44.47, p < 0.001). Norms had the most influence on intention (β=0.42, p < 0.001), next was vulnerability (β=0.21, p < 0.001) then fear (β=0.16, p=0.002), and finally information seeking (β=0.10, p=0.01).

The current college age population did not have the opportunity to be vaccinated early and the recent (2011) recommendation that males get vaccinated makes this research valuable to those designing vaccination messages. The current study shows that norms were the most influential variable in regards to increasing intent to get vaccinated. This means that if the participant believed their friends would support or endorse their intent to get vaccinated they were more likely to say they would follow through and get vaccinated. This finding should be highlighted in any future campaign.

Most cervical cancers are caused by genital human papillomavirus (HPV). However, it can be prevented if females receive an HPV vaccine. Nevertheless, there is limited evidence of HPV vaccination and predictors of intention to obtain the vaccine among young women in Thailand. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This cross-sectional study examined HPV vaccination and factors influencing intention to vaccinate among a convenient sample of college women in Thailand. The data collection was conducted via a self-administered “HPV and HPV vaccine-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors” questionnaire.

Out of 1,030 participants, 309 (30.0 percent) were aware of HPV and the HPV vaccine. Out of these, 257 participants reported that they had not obtained the vaccine and 18 participants were unsure if they had already obtained the vaccine or not. Only 34 participants confirmed that they had received the vaccine. Among those who were aware of HPV and the HPV vaccine, 56.4 percent of them did not know that most HPV-infected persons do not show any signs or symptoms, and 53.3 percent thought that the vaccine provided protection against other sexually transmitted infections as well. Most had positive attitudes toward vaccination and subjective norms. Among the participants who had not received the vaccine, the intention to obtain the vaccine was predicted by age, knowledge, attitudes toward vaccination, and subjective norms. The reasons for not being vaccinated included the cost of the vaccine, lack of knowledge, and perception of themselves being at low risk.

This study found low HPV vaccination among college women. However, those who had not received the vaccine intended to obtain the vaccine at some point in the future. An HPV vaccination campaign may be well tailored in order to increase the intention to obtain the vaccine which, in turn, may increase the HPV vaccination. Vaccination cost sharing should be discussed among Thai policy makers in order to alleviate the financial burden for women.

Effectiveness of message tactics in social marketing projects often varies across groups of individuals, which suggests the importance of tailoring communication approaches to maximize the success of promotional strategies. This study aims to contribute in this direction by using an innovative approach to promote targeted human papillomavirus vaccination, applying conjoint analysis to understand parental preferences for social media content features.

An online purpose-built quantitative survey was administered to a group of parents meeting eligibility criteria. The survey questions were designed based on inputs from formative qualitative research conducted in a previous phase of the study.

In the overall sample of 285 parents, responses show that image was the most important feature of social media posts overall, followed by source and text. Cluster analysis identified eight segments in the sample based on parental preferences for content features. Significant differences across segments were identified in terms of need for cognition, vaccine hesitancy, parental gender, concerns around side effects, trust in medical providers, information sharing behaviors on social media and information seeking online.

The application of conjoint analysis to promotional content allows to assess which features of the content are most important in persuading different individuals and provide insights on how people process the information, ultimately to inform targeted promotion based on preferences. Conjoint analysis has been widely used in consumer research to explore audience preferences for products or services, but only a few applications of conjoint analysis to the design and testing of promotional content are found in the literature.

Cervical cancer (CxCa) incidence and mortality remain unacceptably high in South Carolina, USA, presenting an ideal opportunity for intervention. To address this need, Cervical Cancer-Free South Carolina developed an academic-community partnership with researchers and students at a public university to design, implement, and evaluate a theory-based CxCa communication campaign, It’s My Time. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The goal of this campaign was to decrease CxCa by increasing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and appropriate screening. This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a successful theory-based CxCa prevention communication campaign for college women based on formative audience research and targeted messages delivered to audience segments through new and traditional communication channels. The health belief model (HBM) served as a theoretical framework for the campaign throughout development, implementation, and evaluation.

This campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of the HBM to address CxCa prevention, including HPV vaccine acceptability. The campaign aimed to increase perceptions of susceptibility, which were low, by emphasizing that HPV is a sexually transmitted infection. A community-based grassroots approach to addressing disparities in CxCa prevention increased benefits and decreased barriers. Social media emerged as a particularly appropriate platform to disseminate cues to action. In total, 60 percent of participants who responded to an anonymous web-based survey evaluation indicated that they received the HPV vaccine as a result of campaign messages.

This paper offers practical suggestions to campaign planners about building academic-community partnerships to develop theory-based communication campaigns that include conducting formative research, segmenting target audiences, engaging with young people, and incorporating social media.

This study aims to explore peoples cognitive perceptions of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to inform decisions on message development with regard to message bundling, with limited research on the concept of bundling-related prevention messages and no studies that consider the bundling of HIV and other STD prevention messages.

Individual and small-group interviews were conducted with 158 African American men and women to explore perceptions of STDs and communication preferences. Open-ended questions and a pile-sort exercise were used to elicit individuals’ judgments on similarities of 12 STDs, including HIV. Interview data were coded and analyzed for themes and patterns; pile sort data were analyzed using multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis to visualize the set of relations identified from the piles.

STDs and HIV are associated with stigma, risk behaviors and personal responsibility. The card sorting activity revealed two primary dimensions by which people organized STDs: seriousness and curability. Potential clusters of STDs that correspond to participants described sorting strategies were identified and they may have implications for message bundling. Disaggregation of the data by sex and age revealed slight variations in the relationships of HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV) to other STDs.

By identifying a set of cognitive attributes people use in organizing the overall semantic domain of STDs, ideas can be generated for how best to combine STD and HIV messages to meet public health communication goals.