HJAR Jan/Feb 2024

HPV 50 participants to complete the survey were offered a $20 Amazon gift card, which was sent to them electronically. Study data were collected and managed using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) tools hosted at New York Insti- tute of Technology. 9,10 REDCap is a secure, web-based software platform designed to support data capture for research stud- ies. Survey data was analyzed in REDCap to obtain descriptive characteristics of the study population. This study was approved by the New York Institute of Technology institutional review board, and permission was granted by Arkansas State University. Since this was an anonymous survey, the study was exempt from informed consent. Results A total of 327 individuals, ranging in age from 18 to 56 years (average 24.6 years), completed the survey (Table 1). In order to better characterize the traditional col- lege-age population, analyses focused on the group of participants who were 18 to 22 years old (N = 183). Among 18- to 22-year-old participants, only 56% (N = 102) answered that they had received all recommended doses of the HPV vaccine (Table 1). Another 4.9% (N = 9) had received some but not all doses, and 13.2% (N = 24) had not received any. Of the nine partially vaccinated participants, six (66.7%) stated that they would like to receive the remaining vaccines. Among the 24 participants who had not received any HPV vaccinations, the reasons for not receiving the vaccine varied. Two (8.3%) did not want to receive the vaccine, and nine (37.5%) did not know about the vaccine. Parental decisions also played a role. Two participants (8.3%) stated that their parents did not know about the vaccine; some par- ents did not want them to get vaccinated because they were not sexually active (N = 2, 8.3%) or believed the vaccine to be harm- ful (N = 7, 29.1%). Thirteen of the 24 partici- pants who had not received any vaccina- tions (54.1%) stated that they would have received the vaccine if the decision had been up to them. Of note, 25.7% (N = 47) of 18- to 22-year-olds were unsure of their vaccina- tion status. While this means that the num- bers of vaccinated and unvaccinated may be 18-22 Years (N = 183) >22 Years old (N = 144) Gender Identity Number (Percent) Number (Percent) Female 139 (76) 103 (73) Male 39 (21.4) 34 (24.1) Transgender Female 1 (0.5) 0 Transgender Male 0 0 Gender Variant/Nonconforming 2 (1.1) 3 (2.1) Not listed 1 (0.5) 0 Prefer not to answer 1 (0.5) 1 (0.7 Participant has received all or some HPV vaccinations Yes, all 102 (56) 45 (31.9) Yes, some 9 (4.9) 9 (6.4) None 24 (13.2) 58 (41.1) Unsure 47 (25.7) 29 (20.6) TABLE 1: PARTICIPANT GENDER AND HPV VACCINATION STATUS.