Data Show Many US Adults Lack Awareness About HPV, Vaccine: Daily Dose

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Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On August 19, 2025, we reported on a study published in JAMA Oncology that was designed to quantify the awareness of human papillomavirus (HPV), the HPV vaccine, and its association with cancer among US adults.

The study

For the cross-sectional analysis, researchers assessed data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) collected between 2017 and 2022, including 22 344 adults (mean age, 49 years; 51.1% women).

The findings

Nationally, 34.3% of adults were unaware of HPV, and 37.6% were unaware of the HPV vaccine. Lack of awareness exceeded 40% in 7 states, primarily in the Midwest (Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois) and South (Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama). More than 40% of respondents in 13 states were unaware of the HPV vaccine. Among respondents who had heard of HPV, 70.8% were unaware that HPV causes oral cancers and 28.3% were unaware that HPV causes cervical cancer.

Authors' comments

"Given the importance of timely HPV vaccination and the risk of early-life exposure, there is a critical need to enhance HPV awareness among adolescents, young adults, parents or caregivers, and pediatric and adult health care professionals."

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