The impact of an educational forum intervention on East African mothers’ HPV vaccine-related knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to vaccinate their adolescent children

•An HPV vaccine education intervention targeted East African immigrant mothers.•Education was delivered via small group forums by co-ethnic healthcare providers.•Education increased mothers’ knowledge and attitudes about HPV vaccines.•Most said they were likely to vaccinate their adolescent children post-intervention.•HPV vaccination in mothers’ adolescent children was low over 6-month follow-up. HPV vaccine uptake in U.S. East African adolescents is low. We developed and evaluated a culturally-targeted interactive educational intervention for East African immigrant mothers to increase HPV-vaccine-related knowledge, attitudes, and intentions to vaccinate adolescent children. Eligible mothers had ≥ 1 11–17-year-old child and reported all children’s HPV vaccination status as unvaccinated or unknown. The intervention was delivered via 10 dinners in the Seattle metropolitan area (8 with the Somali community, 2 with the Ethiopian community). Educational presentations and pre/post-tests on knowledge, attitudes, and intentions were conducted in the participants’ native language by a co-ethnic physician. Pre/post differences in responses were evaluated with McNemar’s tests and GEE models. HPV vaccination uptake 6-months post-intervention was evaluated using state immunization registry data. Of 115 participating mothers, most (84%) were Somali and