title: Parental education and text messaging reminders as effective community based tools to increase HPV vaccination rates among Mexican American children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Latino populations, particularly Mexican-Americans who comprise 65% of the Latinos in the U.S., are disproportionately affected by HPV-related diseases. The HPV vaccination completion rates remain low, well below the Healthy People 2020 goal. In this study we assessed the effect of parental education and a text messaging reminder service on HPV vaccine completion rates among eligible children of Mexican American parents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nonequivalent group study of Mexican parents of HPV vaccine eligible children attended the Health Window program at the Mexican Consulate in New York City, a non-clinical, trusted community setting, during 2012-2013. 69 parents received HPV education onsite, 45 of whom also received a series of text message vaccination reminders. We measured HPV vaccination completion of the youngest eligible children of Mexican parents as the main outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  98% of those in the education plus text messaging group reported getting the first dose of the vaccine for their child and 87% among those in the educational group only (p = 0.11). 88% of those receiving the 1st dose in the text messaging group reported completing the three doses versus 40% in the educational group only (p = 0.004).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parental text messaging plus education, implemented in a community based setting, was strongly associated with vaccine completion rates among vaccine-eligible Mexican American children. Although pilot in nature, the study achieved an 88% series completion rate in the children of those who received the text messages, significantly higher than current vaccination levels.
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 300 East 66 st 15th Floor, New York, NY 10065, United States.
authors: Abraham
authors: A
authors: Aragones
authors: Department of Community Health Sciences, SUNY Downstate School of Public Health, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11203, NY, United States.
authors: Denise M
authors: DM
authors: Bruno
authors: General Consulate of Mexico in New York, 27 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016, United States.
authors: Mariane
authors: M
authors: Ehrenberg
authors: General Consulate of Mexico in New York, 27 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016, United States.
authors: Josana
authors: J
authors: Tonda-Salcedo
authors: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 300 East 66 st 15th Floor, New York, NY 10065, United States.
authors: Francesca M
authors: FM
authors: Gany
keywords: Cancer prevention; Community intervention; HPV vaccine barriers; Human papillomavirus vaccine; Latino children