An educational intervention to increase HPV vaccination acceptance among Ukrainian parents in Poland

Abstract Background Polish segment of the RIVER-EU project aimed to assess health system barriers to HPV vaccination among Ukrainian migrants and refugees (UMR) in Poland. Objectives To evaluate effects of an HPV vaccine educational intervention on knowledge and vaccine intent in UMR parents in Poland. Methods A 4-component intervention was conducted. This method was used based on the effectiveness of another evidence-based HPV vaccine educational intervention on vaccine completion in a low-income migrant population. Its transferability was checked and adjusted for local needs. A study was conducted among 178 UMR parents (February-July 2024). Recruited parents were registered to the network of primary care clinics in Rzeszow, Poland. Four Ukrainian GPs were trained to deliver 9 group interventions; this had to be changed to 27 individual sessions after an erroneous suspicion of HPV vaccine adverse effects which spread out in Ukrainian community and resulted in recruiting crisis. Results Majority of participants were female (84.3%) and those aged >30 years (77.5%). For 59.6% UMR knowledge scores about HPV were low (≤50%). Only 30.3% knew all possible routes of HPV transmission, 39.9% knew male HPV-related neoplasms. The intervention significantly improved HPV knowledge by 63.4% (pre: mean 5.2, SD ± 2.1; post: mean 8.2, SD ± 1.7; p < 0.0001). Parents who attended individual education had lower pre-intervention scores, however, they outperformed parents who participated in the group sessions in post intervention knowledge. Ukrainian mothers and parents with higher SES significantly improved the vaccine intent after intervention (56.6% to 64.8%, p = 0.04 and 55.3% to 73.9%, p = 0.046 respectively). Conclusions The findings underscore the importance of advocating for culturally appropriate interventions to improve HPV vaccination knowledge and intent to vaccinate UMR children.