A comic book created to educate young people about human papillomavirus (HPV) and vaccination for the virus succeeded in improving college students’ attitudes about completing the vaccination process in a recent study, Healio reports.

Obianuju Aguolu, PhD, MBBS, MPH, a postdoctoral associate of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Yale University, presented findings from the study at the 2020 Virtual Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research.

HPV causes genital warts and cervical, anal, oral and other cancers. There is a vaccine prevents nine of the strains of the virus most associated with warts and cancer. It is now recommended for people up to age 26. U.S. vaccination rates for young people remain below the target rate of 80% coverage.

To assess the comic book, the investigators recruited a group of men and women 18 to 26 years old who were attending college in northeast Ohio. They all received the first dose of the three-part HPV vaccine regimen.

Just 29% of the young people completed all three doses of the vaccine.

However, among those who read the comic book, knowledge scores about HPV and the vaccine were higher compared with those who did not read it. Reading the comic book also raised the participants’ intentions about completing the vaccine doses.

To read the Healio article, click here.