Introduction: The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a well-established risk factor for numerous cancers, including head and neck cancers. The HPV vaccine has been shown to significantly reduce the incidence of HPV-related cancers, yet vaccination rates remain suboptimal, hovering below 60% across the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced additional complexities, affecting patients' access to healthcare and public perceptions of vaccines. As social media platforms become increasingly popular and accessible, many people turn to them to seek public opinion on myriad topics, including vaccinations. Analyzing social media platforms such as Reddit can provide critical insight into lay discussions surrounding the HPV vaccine, especially in the post-COVID era, potentially revealing patient concerns, attitudes, and barriers to vaccination.
This study aims to analyze discussions in the r/HPV Subreddit (22,919 members) related to the HPV vaccine. Shifts in public attitudes, concerns, and vaccine accessibility may all be contributing factors to suboptimal vaccination rates. Analyzing these discussions may reveal public perceptions of the HPV vaccine and whether the recent pandemic has influenced these views.
Methods: Posts and comments referencing the HPV vaccine were collected from the r/HPV Subreddit using a Python script designed to scrape all entries mentioning the vaccine, along with metadata for each entry. Posts and comments were collected over a three-month period from August 12, 2024, to October 29, 2024.
Scraped posts and comments were manually labeled as "Intentional" or "Incidental," referring to their relevance to the HPV vaccine. We then filtered out "Incidental" mentions to analyze only entries that discussed the vaccine specifically. The remaining "Intentional" entries were further categorized based on their purpose. A sentiment analysis was performed on all entries.
Results: Of the 684 posts and comments collected from the r/HPV Subreddit, 281 were identified as "Intentional" entries. Of these, 85 were posts, and 196 were comments. The overall sentiment analysis revealed mostly positive sentiments (65.9% positive, 3.0% neutral, 31.1% negative). The most common reasons for discussion included offering advice/recommendations (25.0%), sharing personal experiences with the vaccine (5.3%), and providing objective claims (5.3%). The highest sentiment scores were observed in the personal experiences and advice/recommendations categories, indicating strong support for and confidence in the vaccine. Nonetheless, discussions related to barriers and accessibility constituted 25.0% of the entries, all of which were associated with negative sentiment scores and typically discussed insurance and financial impediments.
Conclusion: This analysis highlights the evolving conversation regarding the HPV vaccine within the r/HPV Subreddit post-COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, intentional entries about the HPV vaccine are dominated by positive or supportive sentiments, largely in the context of recommendations, objective claims, and personal experiences. However, accessibility challenges remain a common barrier, with entries expressing negative emotions regarding insurance and costs. These findings can help guide more effective public health education and healthcare provider communication regarding the HPV vaccine in the post-COVID era.