Association between Sexual Activity and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Initiation and Completion among College Students

HPV vaccination is most effective if received before initiation of sexual activity. Previous studies suggested that young adult women who were not sexually active were not interested in receiving the vaccine because they did not think it was necessary. Whether this misperception is still prevalent today-and also shared by men-is unknown. This study examined whether sexual activity was associated with HPV vaccine uptake (initiation and completion) among university students. A cross-sectional study was conducted between February and May 2021 among students (n = 951) at a public Midwestern University. Sexual activity was categorized as never or ever had oral and/or vaginal sex. Outcome variables were HPV vaccine initiation, defined as receipt of ≥1 dose, and completion, defined as receipt of ≥3 doses. Multivariable logistic regression models estimated the association between sexual activity and HPV vaccine uptake, adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Approximately 18% of students reported never engaging in sexual activity. Overall, 45.5% initiated the HPV vaccine, and 16.5% completed the vaccine series. After adjusting for covariates, compared to students that reported never engaging in sexual activity, those that had ever engaged in sexual activity were more likely to have initiated the vaccine series (aOR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.34-3.17); however, no difference was observed for completion. HPV vaccination was low; sexually naïve students were less likely to initiate the HPV vaccine. Since sexually naïve students may benefit from receiving the HPV vaccination, targeted interventions should be implemented towards this population to help increase vaccination rates and prevent HPV-associated diseases

BMI, Weight Discrimination, and Psychological, Behavioral, and Interpersonal Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine whether BMI and weight discrimination are associated with psychological, behavioral, and interpersonal responses to the coronavirus pandemic.MethodsUsing a prospective design, participants (N = 2,094) were first assessed in early February 2020 before the coronavirus crisis in the United States and again in mid-March 2020 during the President's "15 Days to Slow the Spread" guidelines. Weight, height, and weight discrimination were assessed in the February survey. Psychological, behavioral, and interpersonal responses to the coronavirus were assessed in the March survey.ResultsPrepandemic experiences with weight discrimination were associated with greater concerns about the virus, engaging in more preventive behaviors, less trust in people and institutions to manage the outbreak, and greater perceived declines in connection to one's community. BMI tended to be unrelated to these responses.ConclusionsDespite the risks of complications of coronavirus disease associated with obesity, individuals with higher BMI were neither more concerned about the virus nor taking more behavioral precautions than individuals in other weight categories. Weight discrimination, in contrast, may heighten vigilance to threat, which may have contributed to both positive (greater concern, more precautionary behavior) and negative (less trust, declines community connection) responses to the pandemic

Acculturation and health beliefs: Interactions between host and heritage culture underlie Latina/o caregivers\u27 beliefs about HPV vaccination

Immigrating to another country can have significant effects on people’s health and health behavior. Acculturation, or the extent to which people adopt the beliefs, values, and practices of the country to which they immigrate (i.e., the host or receiving country), plays an important role in this process. One central pathway through which acculturation may affect immigrant health is by altering people’s beliefs about health-related behavior. Objectives: This study examined the interactive effects of acculturation (host culture acquisition) and enculturation (heritage culture retention) on Latina/o caregivers’ beliefs about their child completing the human papillomavirus vaccine series. Methods: Participants were 161 caregiver-child dyads from Florida. Using multiple regression, caregiver knowledge and health beliefs (perceived threat, benefits, barriers, subjective norms, and self-efficacy) about series completion were predicted from caregivers’ scores on acculturation, enculturation, and their interaction, controlling for sociodemographics. Acculturation and enculturation interacted to predict knowledge, benefits, barriers, and self-efficacy. Results: Caregivers with high acculturation scores generally supported series completion, regardless of their enculturation score. However, when acculturation was low, caregivers who retained more (vs. less) of their heritage culture were more knowledgeable and held more favorable beliefs about series completion. Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of independently assessing acculturation and enculturation in Latina/o immigrant populations. Overlooking enculturation may lead to incomplete conclusions about acculturation and health

Perceived weight discrimination and performance in five domains of cognitive function.

ObjectiveIndividuals who perceive unfair treatment because of their body weight have been found to be at increased risk of poor health outcomes, including risk of dementia. The present research examines the relation between weight discrimination and performance in five cognitive domains (episodic memory, speed-attention, visuospatial ability, language, numeric reasoning) and whether the associations extend to other common attributions for discrimination (age, gender, race).MethodParticipants (n = 2593) were from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) sub-study of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). HCAP participants completed a battery of cognitive tasks that measured the five focal cognitive domains. Participants reported on their perceived experiences with discrimination at the previous regular HRS assessment.ResultsIn models that accounted for demographic covariates and BMI, weight discrimination (reported by 6% of participants) was associated with a two-fold increased risk of poor performance on tasks of episodic memory, speed-attention, visuospatial ability, and numeric reasoning. Body mass index was largely unrelated to performance in the five cognitive domains. The other attributions for discrimination were generally unrelated to cognition, but there were sex- and race-specific associations for gender and race discrimination, respectively.ConclusionsThe present study identified attribution- and domain-specific associations between discrimination and cognitive performance in older adulthood