Human Papillomavirus vaccine uptake: Misinformation online and the healthcare providers’ role in reducing antivaccine sentiment

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infections are one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in Canada (Government of Canada, 2020). HPV infections are often easy to treat, however, certain strains of the virus can progress and make the population more susceptible to different cancer diagnosis (2020). This is a concern, as cancer diagnoses related to HPV infection are expected to rise in Canada (Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, 2021). In 2008, Alberta implemented an HPV school vaccine program with young girls as the target group (Highet, Jessiman-Peerault, Hilton, Law & Allen-Scott,2020). Following this, the school vaccine program was expanded to include boys in the same age group (2020). In 2020, the province made a vaccine program inclusive of individuals between ages 18-26 to help promote uptake in this group (2020). Despite school vaccine programs and well-established efficacy and safety research of the vaccine, HPV vaccination levels remain suboptimal in Alberta and different parts of Canada (2020). This is attributable to several causes, however the spread of vaccine misinformation online in addition to the growing influence social media sites have on the public to obtain health information are identified as concerns (Ortiz, Smith & Coyne-Beasley, 2019). This paper will delve into the growing HPV antivaccine sentiment in Canada and its impact on health outcomes. In addition, it will discuss the important role healthcare workers have in addressing vaccine misinformation in efforts to improve vaccination rates. Healthcare providers remain the most trusted individuals to help reduce vaccine misinformation (Paterson et al., 2016). Their innate trust and title legitimize their claims and motivates individuals to value their advice and recommendations. In addition, this paper will discuss the current legislation set in place to regulate healthcare workers in Alberta. It will also offer an analysis of the already established social media documents that guide healthcare workers. The paper ends with a list of policy recommendations to mobilize healthcare workers and ensure that their voices are heard and utilized to help slow and address the spread of vaccine misinformation on social media in hopes of reducing antivaccine sentiment

Equity and gender mainstreaming in public policy: A scoping review protocol.

BackgroundDespite growing attention paid to health equity and efforts to promote gender mainstreaming-a global strategy to promote gender equality-how policymakers have 'institutionalized' this in their work is less clear. Therefore, this planned scoping review seeks to search the peer-reviewed and grey literature to compile evidence on the ways in which policymakers have routinely or systematically considered equity and/or gender in their work.MethodsA scoping review will be undertaken by drawing on the PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). With the expert guidance of a research librarian, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, PAIS Index, and Scopus databases will be searched, in addition to custom Google searches of government documents. The search will be conducted from 1995 and onwards, as there were no hits prior to this date that included the term "gender mainstream*" in these databases. The inclusion criterion is that: (i) texts must provide information on how equity and/or gender has been considered by government officials in the development of public policy in a routine or systematic manner (e.g., descriptive, empirical); (ii) both texts produced by government or not (e.g., commentary about government action) will be included; (iii) there are no restrictions on study design or article type (i.e., commentaries, reports, and other documents, would all be included); and (iv) texts must be published in English due to resource constraints. However, texts that discuss the work of nongovernmental or intergovernmental organizations will be excluded. Data will be charted by: bibliographic information, including the authors, year, and article title; country the text discussed; and a brief summary on the approach taken.DiscussionThis protocol was developed to improve rigour in the study design and to promote transparency by sharing our methods with the broader research community. This protocol will support a scoping review of the ways in which policymakers have routinely or systematically considered equity and/or gender in their work. We will generate findings to inform government efforts to initiate, sustain, and improve gender and equity mainstreaming approaches in policymaking

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist.</p

Articles containing the term "gender mainstream*" across four databases.

Articles containing the term "gender mainstream*" across four databases.</p

Planned searches, rationale for each database, and associated search strings.

Planned searches, rationale for each database, and associated search strings.</p