Relationship of Exposure to Contradictory Information and Information Insufficiency to Decision-Making About HPV Vaccination Among South Korean College Women

Abstract

In this study, we investigated how exposure to contradictory messages about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine affects female South Korean college students' vaccination decisions. Specifically, we focused on the relationship between exposure to contradictory messages, current knowledge, and information insufficiency that may affect participants' confusion and decision-making about vaccination. A percentile bootstrap method and pairwise comparison tests in structural equation modeling were employed. Exposure to contradictory messages significantly and negatively affected current knowledge of the HPV vaccine. Although current knowledge significantly and negatively affected confusion around the vaccine, information insufficiency failed to predict it. The vaccine confusion significantly and positively affected decisional conflicts, which, in turn, decreased the behavioral intentions to vaccinate. Additionally, the results showed how the participants' altruistic orientations and perceived stigma moderated the associations among the variables. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for future research investigating the effects of vaccine-related information on young adult women's decision-making about vaccination, particularly in cultural contexts where the HPV vaccine uptake rates are low.