HPV prevalence at enrollment and baseline results from the Carolina Women’s Care Study, a longitudinal study of HPV persistence in women of college age

Abstract

CWCS participants were 70% European American, 24% African American, 3% Latina/Hispanic, and 3% Asian. At enrollment, 32% tested positive for any HPV. HPV16 infection was the most common (18% of infections). Together, HPV16, 66, 51, 52, and 18 accounted for 58% of all HPV infections. Sixty-four percent of all HPV-positive samples contained more than one HPV type, with an average of 2.2 HPV types per HPV-positive participant. We found differences between African American and European American women in the prevalence of HPV infection (38.1% African American, 30.7% European American) and abnormal Papanicolaou test results (9.8% African-American, 5.8% European American). While these differences did not reach statistical significance at enrollment, as the longitudinal data of this cohort are analyzed, the sample size will allow us to confirm these results and compare the natural history of HPV infection in college-aged African American and European American women.