Variations in the age‐specific curves of human papillomavirus prevalence in women worldwide

Abstract

An inverse relationship between age and human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence has been reported in many developed countries, but information on this relationship is scarce in many other parts of the world. We carried out a cross-sectional study of sexually active women from the general population of 15 areas in 4 continents. Similar standardised protocols for women's enrolment, cervical specimen collection and PCR-based assays for HPV testing were used. HPV prevalence in different age groups was compared by study area. 18,498 women aged 15-74 years were included. Age-standardised HPV prevalence varied more than 10-fold between populations, as did the shape of age-specific curves. HPV prevalence peaked below age 25 or 35, and declined with age in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Korea and in Lampang, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. This was not the case in Songkla, Thailand nor Hanoi, Vietnam, where HPV prevalence was low in all age groups. In Chile, Colombia and Mexico, a second peak of HPV prevalence was detected among older women. In the poorest study areas in Asia (Shanxi, China and Dindigul, India), and in Nigeria, HPV prevalence was high across all age groups. The substantial differences observed in age-specific curves of HPV prevalence between populations may have a variety of explanations. These differences, however, underline that great caution should be used in inferring the natural history of HPV from age-specific prevalences. ' 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Age-dependent prevalence of 14 high-risk HPV types in the Netherlands: implications for prophylactic vaccination and screening

“…The observed relationship between hrHPV prevalence and age is in agreement with data from several European and North American studies (Jacobs et al, 2000a;Sellors et al, 2000;de Sanjose et al, 2003;Castle et al, 2005;Ronco et al, 2005;Manhart et al, 2006). In our large data set, we did not find a second hrHPV peak at age beyond 45 years as detected in several Latin American countries (Franceschi et al, 2006). Within hrHPVpositive women, HPV16 and HPV31 were the most prevalent types.…”

Human papillomavirus infection in women with and without cervical cancer in Nepal

“…The agespecific curve of HPV prevalence in Nepal resembled the flat age curves reported previously in some low-resource countries in Asia and Africa [15][16][17][18]24], albeit at a lower level of HPV prevalence. It clearly differed, on the other hand, from the steep decrease in HPV prevalence seen by age in high-and medium-resource countries in Europe, the Americas, and Asia [23,25].…”

“…Of note, the relationship between education level and HPV prevalence in previous IARC surveys in Asia included inverse [25] and direct associations [21,22] as well as no relationship [16].…”

Clinical Experience with the Cervista HPV HR Assay

“…11,14 -16 In all tested groups, an inverse relationship was observed between HR-HPV positivity rate and increasing age, a pattern consistent with findings in numerous studies of HPV prevalence in developed countries. [17][18][19][20] Samples with ASC-US cytological interpretations demonstrated a higher HR-HPV positivity rate in the hc2 population (59.4%) than in the Cervista population (48.5%). Previously reported rates of HR-HPV positivity in samples with ASC-US cytological interpretations vary widely, primarily because of differing HR-HPV prevalence in tested populations; however, in the present study, results in both populations were comparable to the benchmark of 50.7% established by the ASCUS/LSIL Triage Study for Cervical Cancer.…”