To date, there have been no interventional studies aimed at increasing HPV vaccination
rates by making use of digital and involving all stakeholders within this process:
nurses, physicians, caregivers, parents, and children/adolescents according to the PPI
principle.

The primary objective of the project is to identify the effectiveness of a digital
educational intervention, conducted by a multidisciplinary healthcare team and targeting
adolescents of both sexes in secondary schools. The outcome measures will be: engagement,
increased knowledge and self-efficacy, and vaccination uptake.

This project will identify new models for addressing public health needs. The secondary
aim is to evaluate parents' attitudes toward vaccination pre- and post-intervention
education.

A quasi-experimental, pre-post educational intervention study will be conducted by
adopting a convenience sampling will be adopted at secondary schools in Bari (Puglia,
Italy).

The Community Nurse as a Public Health Determinant

Nurse's Role

The study will be carried out in a multiphasic mode. All steps are described below.

  -  First Phase (T0): the Community Nurses (CN) will send, via e-mail to all parents, a
     questionnaire aimed at investigating their children's vaccination status, hesitation
     to vaccination, sources of information, and information needs about vaccination.
     Then, upon prior arrangement with the school Principal, the CN will, in-person,
     distribute a questionnaire to all participating students to explore adolescents'
     knowledge about HPV vaccination, their involvement in vaccine decision-making, their
     feelings, and perceived self-efficacy.

  -  Second Phase (T1): the CN, after analyzing all the responses from the questionnaires
     administered to both parents (to investigate hesitations to vaccination) and
     students (on students' knowledge, involvement, feelings, self-efficacy), will set up
     an educational intervention, involving the members of expert (nurses and physicians'
     experts in public health).

Description of the educational intervention

The educational intervention will be provided (at T1) in two ways:

(I) a video lecture in e-learning mode lasting about an hour, aimed at adolescents, using
the School Institute's platform for distance education, using audiovisual systems and
slide presentations in Power Point format; learner-learner interactions will be possible
through e-mail messages, real-time individual chats and asynchronous discussion forum
conversations including comment sections.. The event will be recorded so that both
adolescents and parents can access it at their convenience.

The educational content will generally take into account the following topic areas: a)
basic information on HPV, modes of prevention and contagion, vaccination and sexual
health; b) epidemiology on cervical cancer, incidence and mortality rates; c) preventive
measures (vaccines, condoms, screening tests); and d) discussion with privileged
witnesses who have experienced contagion.

No form of clinical counseling will be carried out during the video lectures. (II) the
promotion of 2-minute "videopills" on the social channels most frequently used by
students (dedicated youtube channel/school portal) in which clinical experts
(pediatrician, hygienist, health care assistant, and CN) will raise awareness of the
importance of HPV vaccination in adolescents, providing brief information on modes of
transmission, prevention, and health effects of the virus.

  -  Third Phase (T2) - follow up In the last phase (three months after the
     intervention), parents will be contacted again by the CN, by telephone, to assess
     whether they have been vaccinated against HPV. At the same time, the effectiveness
     of the educational intervention will be evaluated by administering the same
     instruments used at T0.

Digital Educational Intervention

The Community Nurse as a Public Health Determinant: a Quasi-experimental and Interventional Study of Promotion of Papillomavirus Vaccination in the School Population

Measured through a telephonic interview to parents, difference in vaccination rates (%
before/after)

Measured through: (1) the Questionnaire - HAVIQ Adolescente Vaccine Intervention
Questionnaire; 5-point Likert scale (from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). (2)
10 items with dichotomous "yes/no" responses. Each correct answer will be assigned a
score of 1, each answer not given or incorrect, zero. The total score ranges from 0 (no
knowledge) to 10 (highest level of knowledge).

Measured through the Questionnaire - HAVIQ Adolescente Vaccine Intervention
Questionnaire; 100-point scale (0="not at all confident"; 100="completely confident").

Measured through the Questionnaire - HAVIQ Adolescente Vaccine Intervention
Questionnaire; 5-point Likert scale (from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree)

Assistant Professor

Measured through the Questionnaire - Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines Survey
(PACV) - The total score ranges from 0 to 100: a parent is considered non-hesitant if he
or she scores <50 and hesitant with a value of ≥50

The Community Nurse as a Public Health Determinant

About this trial

Study ID

Status

Type

Phase

Placebo

Accepting

Trial Timing

What is this trial about?

What are the participation requirements?

Locations

Location

Status