WEDNESDAY, April 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Many adults at high risk for HIV infection have low rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held from March 29 to April 3 in Atlanta.
Lisa T. Wigfall, Ph.D., from Texas A&M University in College Station, and colleagues examined HPV vaccination rates using the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey among individuals who engage in HIV infection high-risk behaviors (injection drugs and/or high-risk sexual behaviors).
The researchers found that 3.39 percent of the 486,303 adults who completed the survey had engaged in high-risk behaviors. Complete data were available for 2.52 percent. Overall, 25.68 percent of gay/bisexual men aged 18 to 33 years and 10.91 percent of heterosexual men aged 18 to 29 years had initiated the three-dose HPV vaccine series; 25.01 percent of heterosexual women aged 18 to 36 years had completed the three-dose series. Statistically significant age, sex, and sexual orientation differences were seen in HPV vaccination rates (P = 0.0047). Almost all non-Hispanic blacks were unvaccinated (96.09 percent); racial/ethnic differences in HPV vaccination rates were not significant (P = 0.0630). Among high-risk adults who had been tested for HIV, HPV vaccine initiation and completion rates were higher (11.91 and 15.72 percent, respectively), although these differences were not significant (P = 0.0750).
“Gender and sexual orientation are important topics that should not preclude us from identifying and targeting HPV vaccination efforts among high-risk populations,” Wigfall said in a statement.
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