Cross-sectional associations between psychological traits, and HPV vaccine uptake and intentions in young adults from the United States

<div><p>Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection worldwide and can lead to the development of genital warts, and cancers throughout the body. Despite the availability of HPV vaccines for over a decade, uptake in the United States among adolescents and young adults remains well below national targets. While most efforts to improve HPV vaccine uptake have rightly focused on adolescents, there is still a tremendous opportunity to improve vaccination among young adults who have not been vaccinated against HPV. To that end, we report an exploratory examination of associations between HPV vaccination status and intentions with psychological traits that may impact HPV vaccine uptake with a national, demographically diverse sample of young adults (N = 1358) who completed an online survey. These psychological traits conceptually mapped onto motivations to: 1) understand health-related information, 2) deliberate, 3) manage uncertainty, and 4) manage threats. We found notable gender differences for the association of these motivations and vaccination status. For women, higher interest in and ability to understand health-related information seemed to distinguish those who reported receiving the HPV vaccine from those who did not. For men, less need to deliberate and greater needs to manage threat and uncertainty seemed to be the distinguishing motives for those who reported receiving the HPV vaccine compared to those who did not. Results for vaccination intentions were less consistent, but there was some evidence to indicate that, regardless of gender, greater health-related information interest and understanding and need to manage uncertainty and threats were associated with increased intention to receive the HPV vaccine, while greater need to deliberate was associated with decreased vaccination intentions. These results suggest that there are psychological differences that are associated with HPV vaccination decisions and that these motivations should be considered in efforts to improve HPV vaccine uptake.</p></div

Psychological traits, definitions, scales/measures, and predictions for each type of motivation.

<p>Psychological traits, definitions, scales/measures, and predictions for each type of motivation.</p

One-way ANOVAs testing for differences in measures based on vaccination status.

<p>One-way ANOVAs testing for differences in measures based on vaccination status.</p

Psychological trait differences based on vaccination status and gender.

<p>Psychological trait differences based on vaccination status and gender.</p

Respondent characteristics.

<p>Respondent characteristics.</p

Bivariate correlations among personality measures.

<p>Bivariate correlations among personality measures.</p

Two-way ANOVAs testing associations and interactions of vaccination status and gender.

<p>Two-way ANOVAs testing associations and interactions of vaccination status and gender.</p

Linear regression results for HPV vaccination intentions (N = 1041).

<p>Linear regression results for HPV vaccination intentions (N = 1041).</p

<i>SIRT6</i> Minor Allele Genotype Is Associated with >5-Year Decrease in Lifespan in an Aged Cohort

<div><p>Aging is a natural process involving complex interplay between environment, metabolism, and genes. Sirtuin genes and their downstream targets have been associated with lifespan in numerous organisms from nematodes to humans. Several target proteins of the sirtuin genes are key sensors and/or effectors of oxidative stress pathways including <i>FOXO3</i>, <i>SOD3</i>, and <i>AKT1</i>. To examine the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) at candidate genes in these pathways and human lifespan, we performed a molecular epidemiologic study of an elderly cohort (≥65 years old.). Using age at death as a continuous outcome variable and assuming a co-dominant genetic model within the framework of multi-variable linear regression analysis, the genotype-specific adjusted mean age at death was estimated for individual SNP genotypes while controlling for age-related risk factors including smoking, body mass index, alcohol consumption and co-morbidity. Significant associations were detected between human lifespan and SNPs in genes <i>SIRT3</i>, <i>SIRT5</i>, <i>SIRT6</i>, <i>FOXO3</i> and <i>SOD3</i>. Individuals with either the CC or CT genotype at rs107251 within <i>SIRT6</i> displayed >5-year mean survival advantages compared to the TT genotype (5.5 and 5.9 years, respectively; <i>q</i>-value  = 0.012). Other SNPs revealed genotype-specific mean survival advantages ranging from 0.5 to 1.6 years. Gender also modified the effect of SNPs in <i>SIRT3</i>, <i>SIRT5</i> and <i>AKT1</i> on lifespan. Our novel findings highlight the impact of sirtuins and sirtuin-related genotypes on lifespan, the importance of evaluating gender and the advantage of using age as a continuous variable in analyses to report mean age at death.</p></div

<i>AKT1</i> rs3803304 location and adjusted mean age at death and genotype frequency distribution stratified by gender.

<p>A. <i>SIRT6</i> is located on chromosome 19p13.3, 8491 bp in length with 8 exons <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0115616#pone.0115616-Kent1" target="_blank">[30]</a>. rs107251, indicated by a blue dash and blue arrows, is an intron variant located after exon 4. It is not located in a mammalian conserved region indicating it is not likely a causal variant for lifespan. Several SNPs are located in <i>SIRT6</i>; rs107251 is thought to capture all of this information. SNPs denoted by a red dash are missense variants; a green dash denotes a synonymous variant. B. CC genotypes and CT genotypes have a >5-year adjusted mean survival advantage over the TT genotype. Data were calculated by multivariable linear regression with adjustment for BMI, smoking, alcohol consumption and comorbidities. There is a significant genotype distribution difference between the 65+RHS and HapMap-CEU populations (p<0.01).</p