School of Psychology, Keele University, Keele, Staffs, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 11;13(4):e0195801. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195801. eCollection 2018.
The incidence of cancers attributable to Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that affect males is on the rise. Currently in the UK teenage boys are not vaccinated against HPV while teenage girls are. The rationale for not vaccinating boys is that vaccinating girls should provide herd immunity to boys, however this does not protect men who have sex with men or men who have sex with unvaccinated women. The issue of whether to vaccinate boys or not is a controversial one with considerable lobbying taking place to change the existing policy. On one side of the debate are financial considerations while on the other side health equality is important. One avenue that has not been presented is the parental perspective. The current study uses a self-report questionnaire to explore what parents of teenage boys know about HPV and the vaccine and whether they want the vaccine for their sons. Only half of the parents had heard of HPV prior to completing the survey. Of those who had heard of HPV, knowledge about the health sequelae of HPV for men was poor relative to their knowledge about its impact on female health. Parents who would be willing to vaccinate their sons had higher levels of knowledge about HPV than those parents who would be unwilling or unsure. Irrespective of whether they had previously heard of HPV or not, once provided with a brief description of HPV, the majority of parents thought that boys should be offered the vaccination. There is a pressing need for public education about the potential impact of HPV on male health in order to facilitate uptake of the vaccine in the event of the vaccination programme being extended to men or to facilitate informed decision making about seeking the vaccine privately in the event that it isn't.
男性 HPV（人乳头瘤病毒）相关癌症的发病率正在上升。目前，英国青少年男孩没有接种 HPV 疫苗，而女孩则接种了。不建议男孩接种疫苗的理由是，为女孩接种疫苗可以为男孩提供群体免疫，但这并不能保护与男性发生性行为或与未接种疫苗的女性发生性行为的男性。是否为男孩接种疫苗是一个有争议的问题，有大量游说活动试图改变现有政策。辩论的一方是财务考虑，而另一方则是健康平等。目前还没有提出的一个途径是家长的观点。本研究使用自我报告问卷来探讨青少年男孩的父母对 HPV 和疫苗的了解程度，以及他们是否希望为儿子接种疫苗。在完成调查之前，只有一半的父母听说过 HPV。在听说过 HPV 的人中，他们对 HPV 对男性健康的影响的了解相对较差，而对其对女性健康的影响的了解则较好。愿意为儿子接种疫苗的父母比不愿意或不确定的父母对 HPV 的了解程度更高。无论他们之前是否听说过 HPV，一旦提供了 HPV 的简要描述，大多数父母都认为男孩应该接种疫苗。为了促进在接种计划扩大到男性或在无法获得疫苗的情况下为知情决策提供便利，有必要对 HPV 对男性健康的潜在影响进行公众教育。
