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Dominique Guillaume

Title: Evaluating the influence of risk perception and cultural worldviews on HPV vaccination intention among Haitian immigrant women living with HIV Lead Investigator: Dominique Guillaume Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kamila Alexander

Haitian immigrant women in the United States experience some of the highest cervical cancer and HIV incidence rates nationwide. Despite their high objective risk of cervical cancer, Haitian immigrant women living with HIV are less likely to undergo HPV vaccination. Risk perceptions have been identified as a critical component of health behaviors; and studies have reported that women living with HIV have low perceived risk towards cervical cancer. Low levels of risk perception may negatively influence decisions to engage in health promotion behaviors such as HPV vaccination. This exploratory mixed-methods study guided by the PEN-3 Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior evaluates how HIV status, cultural worldviews, and affective measures of risk perception influence HPV vaccination intention among Haitian immigrant women living with HIV and Haitian immigrant women without HIV.

Hypothesis: Affective measures of HPV and cervical cancer risk perception will be more predictive of HPV vaccination intention than individual-level factors.