An interventional study of HPV Twitter Education Program - Narrative and HPV Twitter Education Program - Non-Narrative in Human Papilloma Virus and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, sponsored by University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-27.
Sponsored by University of Arkansas, Fayetteville · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Parents use social media as an important parenting tool and source for health information. Using social media data to examine public opinion has had an early impact in public health and in cancer control and prevention efforts, including about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. A next step in this area of research is to develop and share messages on social media with parents to help inform and educate them about the HPV vaccine - ultimately assisting them with their decision to vaccinate their child. This study will evaluate the efficacy of social media messages through Twitter, using a randomized controlled trial to determine what types of messages resonate with parents. The investigators will examine differences between two types of messages - narrative messages (i.e., stories) and non-narrative messages (i.e., numbers and facts).
Approximately 80 million people in the United States - or about one in four - are infected with human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV can cause cancer and there are vaccines that protect against cancer-related strains. Evidence supporting vaccine efficacy and safety is robust, and vaccine availability is widespread; however coverage rates continue to fall short of the national goal of 80% (48.6% in 2017). Understanding the barriers to vaccine acceptance, particularly related to parent resistance and their informational needs, is key to strengthening vaccine uptake among adolescents. Communicating evidence to parents and engaging them through narrative strategies may address some of the barriers during the decision-making process. Parents use social media as an important parenting tool and useful source for health information. In 2015, 75% of all parents used social media, and of these 1 in 4 used Twitter - equating to millions of parent users. The investigators know that using social media data for surveillance has had early impact in public health. However, what is not known is the effectiveness of using large-scale social media data to inform a targeted social media intervention to support HPV vaccine uptake. This study will advance the growing field by evaluating the efficacy of an innovative narrative-focused intervention designed to communicate evidence and information about the HPV vaccine for parents who use social media as a health information source. The approach is informed by narrative engagement theory that posits narratives strengthen knowledge and promote engagement through storytelling by tapping into feelings of empathy, identification, and transportation. The investigators will evaluate the efficacy of our Twitter-based pilot intervention in a randomized controlled trial that will enroll 600 parents/caregivers of children ages 9-14, whose child(ren) has not started the vaccine series. Our central hypothesis is that exposure to narrative-focused exemplar messages will lead to greater intention to vaccinate, and subsequently increased rates of vaccination in the intervention group compared to parents in the comparison group, who receive non-narrative HPV vaccine information (i.e., existing HPV vaccine information developed for Twitter). The investigators will use a Twitter-based Community Advisory Board, virtual focus groups, and existing Twitter messages developed by the HPV Roundtable to inform narrative-focused message development. The proposed study will address three specific aims: 1) Develop narrative-focused scientific exemplars for HPV vaccine communication utilizing existing online messages and community engagement on Twitter; 2) Quantify differences in engagement, intention to vaccinate, and self-reported vaccination between parents exposed to the narrative-focused scientific exemplars and parents exposed to non-narrative scientific messages; 3) Collect and analyze longitudinal participant metadata to measure Twitter activity during the study period. This study will impact the field of cancer prevention generally and HPV vaccination specifically by establishing the efficacy of narrative-focused health messaging campaign on social media, using a Twitter-based parent-engagement strategy.
51 studies on the registry are indexed under Vaccine-Preventable Diseases; 13 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 28 is below the median of 165 across 38 interventional studies indexed under Vaccine-Preventable Diseases.
Browse Vaccine-Preventable Diseases studies →University of Arkansas, Fayetteville is the lead sponsor of 29 studies on the registry; 8 are open to participants now.
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Inclusion Criteria: The study population includes parents who have children ages 9-14. All participants will be 18 years of age or older, and we will specifically target parents ages 25 and older. Eligibility for enrollment in the study will be limited to the following criteria:
Exclusion Criteria:
The intervention condition will present narrative-focused messages about HPV and the HPV vaccine that includes important parent focused exemplar language and cultural norms on Twitter told through stories and characters (i.e., pseudo-parents).
Other: HPV Twitter Education Program - Narrative
The non-narrative condition will present scientific-focused messages about HPV and the HPV vaccine that includes important information relayed with numbers and facts.
Other: HPV Twitter Education Program - Non-Narrative
This study will evaluate the efficacy of social media messages through Twitter, using a randomized controlled trial to determine what types of messages resonate with parents. The investigators will examine narrative messages (i.e., stories). The central hypothesis is that parents who read narrative-focused messages will be more likely to report narrative engagement, intention to vaccinate their child, and self-reported vaccination compared to parents who read non-narrative messages.
This study will evaluate the efficacy of social media messages through Twitter, using a randomized controlled trial to determine what types of messages resonate with parents. The investigators will examine non-narrative messages (i.e., scientific information - numbers and facts). The central hypothesis is that parents who read narrative-focused messages will be more likely to report narrative engagement, intention to vaccinate their child, and self-reported vaccination compared to parents who read non-narrative messages.
Change in caregiver self-reported HPV vaccination status of child questionnaire
dependent variable; measure collects date of vaccination and number of vaccine doses to date
Time frame: Change in caregiver self-reported HPV vaccination of child at 1-month follow-up from baseline
Change in caregiver self-reported HPV vaccination status of child questionnaire
dependent variable; measure collects date of vaccination and number of vaccine doses to date
Time frame: Change in caregiver self-reported HPV vaccination of child at 1-year follow-up from 1-month follow-up
Caregiver self-reported empathy subscale adapted from Busselle & Bilandzic (2009) and Murphy, Frank, Chatterjee, Baezconde-Garbanati (2013).
mediating/moderating variable
Time frame: only at 1-month post intervention
Caregiver self-reported transportation subscale adapted from Murphy, Frank, Chatterjee, Baezconde-Garbanati (2013). Narrative versus Non-narrative: The Role of Identification, Transportation and Emotion in Reducing Health Disparities.
mediating/moderating variable
Time frame: only at 1-month post intervention
Caregiver self-reported identification subscale adapted from Murphy, Frank, Chatterjee, Baezconde-Garbanati (2013). Narrative versus Non-narrative: The Role of Identification, Transportation and Emotion in Reducing Health Disparities.
mediating/moderating variable
Time frame: only at 1-month post intervention
Change in caregiver self-reported intention to vaccinate their child questionnaire
dependent variable; measures readiness and likeliness to receive HPV vaccination
Time frame: Change in caregiver self-reported intention to vaccinate their child at 1-month follow-up from baseline
Change in caregiver self-reported intention to vaccinate their child questionnaire
dependent variable; measures readiness and likeliness to receive HPV vaccination
Time frame: Change in caregiver self-reported intention to vaccinate their child at 1-year follow-up from 1-month follow-up
Plan to share: No — There is not a plan to make IPD available.
This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville