A new role for dental providers? Rethinking where vaccines are given
An interdisciplinary team of Penn researchers used statistical analysis and focus-group feedback to validate a survey that assesses patient perceptions around the role of dental providers in HPV and COVID-19 vaccination.
2 min. read
Vaccinations have traditionally been administered in primary care settings or pharmacies. However, for about a decade, some states have authorized dentists to administer vaccines, and many others did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of this approach has led some countries and states to expand or consider expanding the role of dental providers in delivering routine vaccines, including those against COVID-19 and the human papillomavirus (HPV), and in providing vaccine education.
Previous research explored attitudes around vaccine provision in a dental setting, but none of these studies involved a validated survey instrument to assess these perceptions.
Now, a multidisciplinary team of researchers has refined a previously tested pilot survey using statistical analyses of the questionnaire and feedback from a focus group in Philadelphia. The results are published in Frontiers in Oral Health.
“The primary aim was to conduct an initial validation of the questionnaire,” says Tamara J. Cadet, an associate professor in the School of Social & Practice. “But we also wanted to further understand perceptions of dentist involvement in vaccine efforts.” By combining their analysis with feedback from the focus group, they were able to reduce the survey length by 25%, says Tyler Moore, a research assistant professor in the Perelman School of Medicine.
“We kept the most informative questions and made the language clearer for patients. The result is a short, valid tool that can help us understand and address why some people still question whether dentists should be involved in vaccination,” says Moore.
They found that participants were mixed in their attitudes about dental providers administering vaccinations. In particular, participants seemed more opposed to dental providers administering the HPV vaccine than the COVID-19 vaccine, which researchers say may reflect a lack of knowledge about the HPV vaccine.
Empowering dentists to participate in vaccine education is a powerful public health strategy, given how frequently people visit their dentists and the trusting relationships many patients have with them, says Cadet, who also has a secondary appointment in the School of Dental Medicine.
“Expanding the scope of dentistry to include vaccine education and administration could increase access to care, vaccine uptake, and disease prevention,” she says.
Testing surveys with target populations provides a valuable opportunity to engage people and understand their perceptions, helping inform the development of effective interventions, says Katherine France, formerly an assistant professor in Penn Dental Medicine.
“Participants’ comments provide formative data to develop educational interventions that address the lack of knowledge about what HPV vaccines are, the connection to oral health, and the roles dentists can play in their overall health,” she says.
If future research using this survey finds that patients are receptive to receiving vaccinations from dental providers, the researchers write, that represents an opportunity to educate legislators and advocate for changes in which professions are allowed to vaccinate.
Katherine France was an assistant professor in the Department of Oral Medicine at Penn Dental Medicine during this research. She is now the director of advanced graduate education in oral medicine in the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Mass General Brigham/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
This study was supported by the University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy Practice Dean's Discretionary Fund (Internal Mechanism). TC received funding from National Institutes of Health [NIH; K23AG062795].
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