Merav Ben Natan, Kareem Midlej, Olga Mitelman and Katya Vasiliev
Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Israel
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Primary Health Care
This study investigated the intention of mothers in Israel to vaccinate their sons against HPV, using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a framework, while comparing between Arab and Jewish mothers. The study has a quantitative cross-sectional design. A convenience sample of 200 Jewish and Arab mothers of boys aged 5-18 completed a questionnaire based on the HBM. The research findings indicate that only 14% of the mothers, constituting mostly Arab mothers, vaccinated their sons against HPV. Moreover, mothers showed a moderate level of intention to vaccinate their sons. This level was similar among Arab and Jewish mothers. However, the health beliefs of Jewish and Arab mothers differed. The HBM was found to explain 68% of mothers' intention to vaccinate their sons against HPV and the perceived benefits of the vaccine was the factor most affecting this intention. Although mothers' health beliefs concerning vaccinating their sons against HPV may vary between sectors, the HBM can be used to explain what motivates mothers to vaccinate their sons. The research findings can assist in designing a national project among mothers of boys aimed at raising HPV vaccination rates, in both the Jewish and the Arab sector.
Merav Ben Natan is the Director of the Pat Matthews Academic School of Nursing, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, Israel. She is also an Instructor at the Department of Nursing at Tel Aviv University. She also serves as the Chairman of the Committee on Elder Abuse and Violence of the Israel Ministry of Health and as the Chairman of the Israeli Nursing Research Association. She has published more than 70 articles in various professional journals.
Email:meraav@hy.health.gov.il
