UAB Launches mHealth Study to Boost Vaccine Acceptance Among Teens

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are launching a study to determine if mHealth messaging can improve vaccination rates among rural adolescents.

The program, funded by a $300,000 grant from Merck, Sharp and Dohme, will focus on improving Alabama’s human papillomavirus vaccine rate, which stands at 20 percent and is as low as 9 percent in some rural areas (the national average is about 50 percent). But it could provide the framework for connected health programs addressing a wide variety of public health issues and vaccines, including one for COVID-19.

“Reducing vaccine hesitancy in the rural Deep South is a high-priority public health target,” Henna Budhwani, PhD, a medical sociologist and assistant professor at the UAB School of Public Health, said in a press release. “Focusing on increasing HPV vaccine awareness and understanding the causes of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy are urgently warranted, due to low rates of HPV vaccine that lead to high rates of preventable cancers, and high rates of COVID-19 that disproportionately affect African American populations.”

“African American communities are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and the same reasons underlying vaccine hesitancy related to the HPV vaccine have the potential to negatively influence the acceptance, uptake and confidence in a new novel coronavirus vaccine,” she added. “We anticipate that, through our study, we will improve participants’ knowledge of HPV and COVID-19, increase their understanding of the importance of vaccinations, and reduce stigmas associated with vaccination, COVID-19, HPV and cervical cancer.”

Budhwani and Tina Simpson, MD, a professor at UAB’s Department of Pediatrics, will be working to develop an mHealth platform that pushes targeted information out to adolescents. They’ll be working with both teens and their parents to understand the hesitancy behind accepting vaccines and the best digital health strategies to improve acceptance.

The program is one of many to use telehealth and mHealth channels to reach targeted populations, ranging from those with chronic care needs to pregnant women, new mothers, those with substance abuse or mental health issues and minorities. The idea is to create an online pathway, most often via a smartphone to send information, gather feedback and personalize responses.