Girlvirus? information practices regarding HPV-vaccination in Swedish school healthcare

In this project the debate surrounding the implementation and the practical work to administrate and inform parents and young girls about vaccination against HPV are studied. How the information about the vaccine is enacted locally in school nurses information activities towards young and their parents as well as how the vaccine may be understood in that context is analyzed in the study.

Today the Swedish school health care has to offer girls aged 10-12 years in grade five or six a vaccination against Human PapillomaVirus, HPV. In the present project school nurses’ information work about the importance of this vaccine is studied at some schools in Region Skåne. As a contextualisation of this local work the public debate in connection to the decision to include the vaccine in the vaccination programme will be drawn upon. Thereby different views and expectations on young peoples (future) sexual lives are exposed as they are expressed in information and discussions about vaccin against HPV in the Swedish public debate. Furthermore how negotations about the need of this new vaccin are enacted between school health care and homes.

This is done by studying, for example, newspaper articles and discussions on web forums, and through interviews and participant observation.

A sociocultural theoretical starting point will be used with an interest in how information practices are influenced but also influences the situations in which they take place.

Through the project insights will be gained about information practices linked to preventive medical treatment related to young people´s sexual and reproductive health.