Determinants for HPV vaccine uptake in the Netherlands: A multilevel study

In March 2009, a HPV catch-up vaccination campaign was implemented in the Netherlands for girls born between 1993 and 1996. We performed a multilevel study to investigate determinants for HPV vaccination uptake. National coverage for the first dose was 49.9%, with regional uptakes ranging from 31% to 61%. Data was gathered from individual to regional level. Our results suggest that organizing information meetings at schools and communicating with gynaecologists might be beneficial. Lower uptake among various ethnic groups and in areas with higher proportion of voters for Religious Political Parties indicate that communication on HPV vaccine should be adapted to religious and ethnic communities. Furthermore, lower uptake in areas with lower socioeconomic status needs attention since participation to cervical screening is also lower in these areas. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.