A qualitative examination of human papillomavirus vaccine access, beliefs, and behaviors among adult males aged 18–35: applying the Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework

Description

Jacquelin I Cordero and colleagues published a 2026 qualitative study of why men rarely get the HPV vaccine, reading the problem through stigma. Men account for the majority of HPV-related throat cancers, yet they were left out of vaccine research and campaigns, and uptake lags. The researchers reanalyzed group interviews from 2021 with thirteen vaccine-eligible men aged 18 to 35 in El Paso, Texas, using critical discourse analysis guided by a health stigma framework.

Four themes traced stigma from the inside out. At the personal level, masculine norms cast male sexual health as shameful and framed HPV as a women's issue, leaving men feeling unaffected rather than unprotected. Within families, silence and moralizing kept the topic closed. At the system level, policy and clinic practices reinforced it. The authors argue vaccination programs built only on information will keep missing men; interventions must work at the individual, family, and structural levels.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13281761