Evidence-Based Storytelling and A Strategic Roadmap to Promote Cancer Prevention Via Adolescent HPV Vaccination in Northern New England

Abstract

Vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV) among rural youth in northern New England lag those of more urbanized areas. Reasons include a lack of available medical offices, time constraints, perceptions of vaccines and HPV, and, to a smaller degree, delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a responsibility to increase vaccinations in these communities. To do so, vaccination experts recommend addressing the three c’s of vaccination hesitation: confidence, complacency, and convenience. With this framework as our foundation, in this article we detail a plan to address these important elements, and we add several more c’s: clinics, communication, collaboration, community, capacity, and commitment to the list as we discuss the essential pieces—human, infrastructural, and perceptual—needed to create and promote successful, community-supported, school-based HPV vaccination clinics to serve youths aged nine to 18. We then integrate research and storytelling science into an innovative Persuasion Playbook, a guide for local opinion leaders to use in creating evidence-based, pro-vaccine messages on the community level to promote the clinics via evidence-based, pro-vaccination messages.