Adolescent girls' preferences for HPV vaccines: A discrete choice experiment

Originality/value: DCE studies may be used to design more effective vaccine-promotion programs and for reassessing public health recommendations and guidelines as new vaccines are made available.

Purpose: To measure adolescent girls' preferences over features of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in order to provide quantitative estimates of the perceived benefits of vaccination and potential vaccine uptake.

Design/methodology/approach: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) survey was developed to measure adolescent girls' preferences over features of HPV vaccines. The survey was fielded to a U.S. sample of 307 girls aged 13-17 years who had not yet received an HPV vaccine in June 2008.

Findings: In a latent class logit model, two distinct groups were identified: one with strong preferences against vaccination which largely did not differentiate between vaccine features, and another that was receptive to vaccination and had well-defined preferences over vaccine features. Based on the mean estimates over the entire sample, we estimate that girls' valuation of bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines ranged between $400 and $460 in 2008, measured as willingness-to-pay (WTP). The additional value of genital warts protection was $145, although cervical cancer efficacy was the most preferred feature. We estimate maximum uptake of 54-65%, close to the 53% reported for one dose in 2011 surveillance data, but higher than the 35% for three doses in surveillance data.

Research limitations/implications: We conclude that adolescent girls do form clear opinions and some place significant value on HPV vaccination, making research on their preferences vital to understanding the determinants of HPV vaccine demand.