Vaccination against human papillomavirus is considered vital for protection against certain cancers. Despite this reason, some parents opt not to have their child vaccinated against the virus. A recent study suggests the decision to hold being vaccinated may majorly be due to discouragement from doctors.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a group of more than 150 viruses, which more than 40 of the virus infect the genital areas of men and women. These include HPV types 16 and 18, which are the leading cause for 70% of cervical cancer cases worldwide and can also cause anal, penile and some oropharyngeal cancers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US, and has already affected around 14 million people in the country every year, including teenagers. The full three-dose series of the HPV vaccine is recommended to boys and girls at the age of 11 or 12 in order to have protection against different kinds of cancers related to the virus. But there was a report from the CDC earlier this year that about 4 out of 10 teenage girls and 6 out of 10 teenage boys in the US have not been able to start the first dose of the vaccine.

Medical News reported that the study's author, Melissa B. Gilkey, PhD and her colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston, MA, noticed that in previous studies, doctors' recommendations are the primary influence for the parents' decision to have their children vaccinated against HPV. For their investigation, they decided to study how doctors explain HPV vaccination to parents, which they think could find ways to increase vaccination among adolescents.

The researchers found out that the quality of the recommendation to get the vaccine was stronger to those doctors who started the conversation to parents by saying that their child's vaccination was due than those doctors who just offer information about vaccine and ask parents if they had questions about the vaccine.