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Grant to help boost HPV vaccination among Aboriginal youth

ECU has been awarded more than $900,000 in grant funding to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates among young Aboriginal people.

Two researchers standing side by side ECU’s Kurongkurl Katitjin, Professor Dan McAullay and lead project researcher Dr Natalie Strobel

ECU has been awarded more than $900,000 in grant funding to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates among young Aboriginal people.

HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection that can lead to HPV-related cancers, such as cervical cancer and other cancers such as anal, vaginal, and penile cancer.

Spanning four years, the $974, 708 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) 2022 Ideas Grant will enable the research team to co-create health promotion messages, develop and deliver a social media campaign and evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Natalie Strobel from ECU’s Kurongkurl Katitjin Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research will lead the team, which also includes ECU Director of Aboriginal Research Associate Professor Dan McAullay and experts from Curtin University, Aboriginal Health Council of WA, Government of Western Australia North Metropolitan Health Service and Google LLC.

Dr Strobel said HPV rarely produced symptoms and could not be cured or treated, meaning vaccination was essential to protect against disease.

“However, data from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance shows that many young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not receive all their HPV vaccine doses, resulting in missed opportunities to be protected from HPV-related cancers,” she said.

Using social media to create cut-through

Dr Strobel said researchers would co-create health messages with young Aboriginal people and their families and use the skills of micro-influencers on TikTok to engage and influence their followers.

“Social media had a large impact on vaccination messaging during COVID- 19, both positive and harmful,” she said.

“In particular, Instagram influencers have had a profound impact on pro- and anti-vaccination messages.”

“We know Aboriginal adolescents aged 13-15 years old have strong engagement with social media platforms and that this form of health promotion could have great success in improving health outcomes,” Dr Strobel said.

Natalie and Dan were both recent recipients of the Media Awards 2022 Honour Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Media in 2022.


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