ARTICLE Determinants of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection in Young Women

Carcinoma of the cervix has several well-established epidemiologic risk factors, including multiple sexual partners and early age at first intercourse. Human papil-lomavirus (HPV) infection appears to have an etiologic role in the development of cervical neoplasia, but evidence link-ing HPV infection to known risk factors for cervical cancer has been inconsistent The lack of expected correlations may be due to the inaccuracy of HPV assays previously used. A polymerase chain reaction DNA amplification method for the detection of HPV was used to investigate the deter-minants of genital HPV infection in a cross-sectional sample of 467 women attending a university health service. In con-trast to studies using less accurate detection methods, the risk factors for HPV infection found here were consistent with those for cervical neoplasia. The risk of HPV infectio