Shannon Monnat (Sociology) recently co-authored a paper with a colleague at Georgetown University Medical Center that will be published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, the fourth highest ranked journal in the field of public health. The paper, "Is There an Association between Maternal Pap Test Use and Adolescent Human Papillomavirus?" explores whether there are associations between the mother's recent receipt of a Pap test and daughter's uptake and completion of the three-shot human
papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination series. Findings demonstrated that uptake and completion of the vaccination were more likely among girls whose mothers had obtained a Pap test in the past three years, and the relationship between the mother's receiving a Pap test and vaccine uptake was fully explained by the mother's use of a personal doctor and obtaining a routine physical examination in the past year. Interventions designed to educate mothers on the importance of the HPV vaccination and to facilitate relationships between physicians and mothers may prove successful at increasing HPV vaccination among adolescent girls.