Self-reported genital warts among sexually-active university students: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundGenital warts are one of the most common forms of sexually-transmitted disease, but their epidemiology has yet to be thoroughly elucidated. The present study was designed to shed light on the prevalence of clinically-confirmed, self-reported genital warts (GWs) in a representative sample of the university population.MethodsIn 2015, a cross-sectional survey was conducted on 11,096 individuals approached at the Students Information Bureau where they came to enroll for a university degree course. Participants completed an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire providing information on their sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behavior, and any history of clinically-diagnosed genital warts. Multivariate logistic regression was then used to identify any factors associated with the disease.ResultsOur analysis was conducted on 9259 questionnaires (83.4%). Participants were a mean 21.8 ± 4.8 years of age, and 59.6% were female. Overall, 124 individuals (1.3%, 95%CI: 1.0–1.6) reported having been diagnosed with genital warts: 48 men (1.3%, 95%CI: 0.9–1.6), and 76 women (1.4% 95%CI: 1.1–1.7). Overall, 22.5% of the sample were vaccinated (1.3% of the males and 36.8% of the females). The group of respondents aged 30 years or more had the highest incidence of genital warts (males: 5.6%, 95%CI: 2.5–8.6; females: 6.9%, 95%CI: 3.4–10.4). The independent risk factors associated with a history of disease were (for both genders) a history of other sexually-transmitted diseases, and ≥2 sex partners in the previous 24 months. A protective role emerged for routine condom use. Additional risk factors associated with genital warts in males concerned men who have sex with men, bisexuality vis-à-vis heterosexuality, and smoking.ConclusionsThe findings emerging from our study help to further clarify the epidemiology of genital warts in young people, and may be useful to public health decision-makers. This study showed that genital warts occur in men as well as women, and suggests that both genders should be monitored for this disease to ascertain the effects of the free HPV vaccination offered to all girls in the Veneto in their 12th year of life since 2008, and to all boys of the same age since 2015.

Incidence of anogenital warts: epidemiological risk factors and real-life impact of human papillomavirus vaccination

“…Overall, 977 patients and 977 controls were evaluated and the results showed that consistent condom use exerted a protective role against acquiring AGWs, equally in both sexes. 42 The same conclusion was reached by two recent studies that have already been mentioned above, one from Italy 39 and the other from the United Kingdom. 37 Both of these studies were cross-sectional and included approximately 10,000 participants from the general population.…”

“…Both men and women that reported a same-sex partner in the past 5 years were more likely to report a history of AGWs but, interestingly, this association was no longer significant after adjusting for numbers of sexual partners. So, with the exception of the American study that assessed AGWs prevalence , 48 both the Italian 39 and the British 37 studies found an increased lifetime occurrence of AGWs in MSM and in both MSM and WSW, respectively, regardless of the reason for that association.…”

Time-trend of hospitalizations for anogenital warts in Veneto region in the HPV vaccination era: a cross sectional study (2007–2018)

“…A 2015 cross-sectional survey conducted on 11,096 students aged ≥18 years highlighted differences in sexual behaviors and health habits among between genders. Among those differences, the most notable are a lower frequency of exclusive relationship in males vs females (40.0% vs 57.8%, p < 0.001), an higher mean number of sex partners in males vs females in the last 24 months (1.9 ± 2.3 vs 1.3 ± 1.4, p < 0.001), and lower HPV-vaccination rates in males vs females (1.3% vs 36.8%) [ 17 ].…”

Human papillomavirus: vaccination, related cancer awareness, and risk of transmission among female medical students

“…Knowledge of vaccine availability was even lower in medical students from China (11), but it was much higher in students from countries with national HPV vaccination programs (12,13). Studies from Italy have shown that the HPV vaccination rate was much higher in medical students in comparison with the general student population (13,14). It may be assumed that the situation regarding HPV vaccination and knowledge among non-medical Ukrainian students is also worse.…”