More parents are declining to have their teenage daughters receive the human papillomavirus despite recommendations from healthcare professionals.
As more concern grows over the safety and side effects of the HPV vaccine, so does the amount of parents who decide not to have their adolescent daughters receive the vaccination, according to a new study.
Sixteen percent of parents surveyed in the study said that they opted out of the HPV vaccine in 2010 because they were worried about the safety and side effects associated with it, marking a five percent increase from 2008.
HPV is a grouping of sexually transmitted viruses that have the potential to cause tumors in the cervix, head and neck as well as other organs and is spread via genital contact.
The vaccine is now recommended for children, both male and female, at age 11 or 12.
But the study published in the journal Pediatrics found that the amount of parents who said they do not plan on having their child vaccinated in the next year grew as well.
In 2008, 40 percent of parents said they do not intend to vaccinate their daughters, while in 2009 it increased to 41 percent and then again to 44 percent in 2010.
"You'd expect as people get more familiar with a vaccine that they would actually become more comfortable with it," said Paul Darden, professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and co-author of the study.
"That doesn't seem to be the case with HPV."
Data from the study was taken from information gathered between 2008 and 2010 in the National Immunization Survey of Teens--a phone survey conducted by the government with households with adolescents ranging from ages 13 to 17.
And the research showed that only 32 percent of girls received the HPV vaccine in 2010, as compared to the 81 percent who received the Tdap/Td vaccines and 63 percent who had the MCV4 vaccine.
In 2011, 81 percent of teenagers received the Tdap/Td vaccines and 63 percent had the MCV4 vaccine, while only 32 percent of both girls and boys received the HPV vaccination.
Professor of pediatrics and clinical psychology at Indiana University School of Medicine Gregory Zimet is concerned that parents are becoming more critical of the HPV vaccine.
"It's particularly concerning that parental worries about safety have increased, given that evidence for the safety of HPV vaccination has increased over the same time period," he said.
"In fact, the evidence is overwhelmingly persuasive that HPV vaccines are quite safe."
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