To explore parents' knowledge, vaccination attitude, and willingness influencing factors of human papillomavirus (HPV) and its vaccine for male primary and secondary school students, so as to provide a scientific basis for formulating targeted health education strategies and promoting the popularization of boys HPV vaccination.

From March 3 to 14, 2025, a stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 912 parents of boys in primary and secondary school in Bao'an District, Shenzhen for a questionnaire survey. Data on their demographic characteristics, HPV-related knowledge and its vaccine, vaccination attitude, and willingness were collected. Univariate analysis was performed by using the χ² test or t-test, and binary Logistic regression model was used to analyze related factors of HPV vaccine vaccination willingness.

The total awareness rate of parents' knowledge related to HPV and its vaccine was 35.75%, among which the awareness rates of boys vaccine types (6.36%), optimal age (21.16%), and optimal vaccination period (31.25%) were the lowest. The scores of parents' knowledge and attitude related to HPV and its vaccine were (4.31±2.66) and (3.82±0.63). About 64.25% of parents expressed willingness to have boys vaccinated against HPV. The scores of knowledge and attitude related to HPV and its vaccine of parents with vaccination willingness (4.86±2.55, 4.02±0.58) were higher than those of parents without vaccination willingness (3.34±2.57, 3.46±0.55), and the differences were statistically significant (t=8.59, 13.96, both P < 0.01). Logistic analysis showed that parents without raising daughters had a lower willingness to vaccinate boys against HPV (OR=0.49, 95%CI=0.35-0.70); for each 1 increase in parents' knowledge score related to HPV and its vaccine, the vaccination willingness increased by 9.0% (OR=1.09, 95%CI=1.01-1.17); parents who were worried about boys' infection risk (OR=1.50, 95%CI=1.08-2.08) and parents who had their children vaccinated against HPV even if their classmates were not vaccinated (OR=3.68, 95%CI=2.73-4.94) had higher willingness to vaccinate boys against HPV(all P < 0.05).

Parents of boys in primary and secondary schools of Bao'an District, Shenzhen have low scores of knowledge related to HPV and its vaccine.While parents show strong willingness to vaccinate boys against HPV, limited knowledge may hinder both the sustained growth of vaccination intentions and the actual implementation of vaccination practices.