There are more than 79 million people in the U.S. currently infected with human papillomavirus (HPV), with an estimated 14 million new infections annually. There is a lack of knowledge about the maternal socioeconomic influences and uptake of the HPV vaccine series. Infection with HPV can cause cervical cancer in women, and there are over 11,000 cervical cancer diagnoses in the U.S. responsible for 4000 deaths annually. Vaccination coverage to prevent HPV infection does not meet the Healthy People 2020 goals of an 80% vaccination rate in the U.S. In this study, associations were tested between maternal SES variables and uptake of the HPV vaccine in male and female adolescents ages 13-17 from 1,125 participants who lived within the estimation areas of New York City, New York and Houston, Texas in 2014. The health belief model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. This was a cross-sectional quantitative study using multiple logistic regression analysis of 4 maternal predictor variables. It was found that 3 of the variables (income, p > .05, education β = -.026, p > .05, and age β = -.096, p > .05) were not significantly related to uptake of the HPV vaccine series, whereas ethnicity was found to be significant (Non-Hispanic White β = .429, p = .029, Non-Hispanic Black β = .587, p = .002, and Non-Hispanic Other β = .586, p =.011). Hispanics were nearly 2 times more likely to be vaccinated than other groups. The potential social change implications of this research are that public health workers can use the findings to develop targeted interventions to increase HPV vaccination uptake and reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

Cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CLP) is an ongoing public health issue across the globe, and in the United States. The estimated number of babies born each year in the United States with cleft palate (CP) is about 2,650, while CLP affects approximately 4,440 babies. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to determine if there is a relationship between CLP and maternal characteristics such as reproductive history (advanced maternal age, maternal obesity, prenatal visits, month prenatal care began, number of pregnancies, gestational age at birth, assisted reproductive technology used, gestational diabetes, and hypertension), socioeconomic status of the mother (marital status, education, mother's race, payment source for delivery, and place where birth occurred), and admission to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in U.S. hospitals from January 2016 to December 2016. The epidemiological triad theory served as the study's framework. A secondary dataset from the National Vital Statistics System was used for this study. Logistic regression was used to test the hypothesized associations. Results indicated that many maternal characteristics such as mother's age (p = .000), maternal obesity (p = .020), number of prenatal visits (p = .001), total birth order (p = .001), gestational age at birth (p = .000), gestational diabetes (p = .002), and gestational hypertension (p = .032), mother's education (p = .000), marital status (p = .018), race (p = .000), and admission to NICU (p = .000) were significantly associated with CLP. Results of this study may help health care professionals identify the determinants of the risk of CLP so as to design and implement effective CLP preventive measures among United States populations that are disproportionately affected by this condition.