Community-Based Prevalence of Genital Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Infection: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

<br /> <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Introduction: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Cervical cancer probably represents the best-studied human cancer caused by a viral infection and the causal association of this preventable cancer with human papilloma virus (HPV) is well established. Worldwide there is a scarcity of data regarding HPV prevalence with vast differences existing among populations. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Objective: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the community-based HPV prevalence estimates among asymptomatic women from urban and rural set ups and in participants of cancer screening clinics. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Study design: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Systematic review and meta-analysis. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Methods: P</span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">ubMed-Medline, CINAHL, Scopus, and Google scholar were systematically searched for studies providing prevalence data for HPV infection among asymptomatic women between 1986 and 2016. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Results: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">final analysis included 32 studies comprising a population of 224,320 asymptomatic women. The overall pooled HPV prevalence was 11% (95% confidence interval (CI), 9%-12%). The pooled HPV prevalence of 11% (95% CI, 9%-11%) </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">was observed among women attending cervical cancer screening clinics. The pooled HPV prevalences were 10% (95% </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">CI 8%-12%) and 11% (95% CI 4%-18%) from urban and rural areas respectively, indicating higher infection rates </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">among the rural women with the least access to cancer screening and cancer care. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusion: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The prevalence rates in this systematic quantitative review provide a reliable estimate of the burden of HPV infection among asymptomatic women from developed as well as developing nations. Rural women and women attending cervical cancer screening programmes feature higher genital HPV prevalences compared to their urban counterparts. </span></span>