Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People in the United States: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Objective: This integrative review explores the barriers to and facilitators for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among adult transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in the United States.

Data source: A systematic search of electronic databases included PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and EMBASE from 1985 to 2020.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria: Inclusion criteria included studies from the United States that described HPV vaccination barriers or facilitators and included adult TGD participants, both quantitative and qualitative studies. Exclusion criteria were studies that reported only HPV vaccine prevalence, non-English/non-U.S. studies, and studies limited to pediatric populations.

Data extraction: Two investigators used Covidence software to screen studies and manage data extraction. Quality of the quantitative studies was appraised using a checklist proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI); qualitative studies were appraised using quality criteria informed by the literature.

Data synthesis: The Social Ecological Model guided the review to organize barriers to and facilitators for HPV vaccination at the patient-, provider-, and system-levels.

Results: Database searches and hand-searching yielded 843 citations. After screening, eight articles were retained in the review. Seven were cross-sectional studies and one was a qualitative focus-group. All retained quantitative studies met six of the eight JBI quality checklist items.

Conclusion: The low proportion of TGD participants in the retained studies highlights a gap in knowledge about HPV vaccination among this population. Future studies of HPV vaccination should recruit TGD people to better represent their perspectives.

Keywords: HPV; gender minorities; integrative review; papillomavirus; transgender; vaccination.