Sexual Behavior, Condom Use, and Human Papillomavirus: Pooled Analysis of the IARC Human Papillomavirus Prevalence Surveys

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection but it is unclear whether differences in transmission efficacy exist between individual HPV types. Information on sexual behavior was collected from 11 areas in four continents among population-based, age-stratified random samples of women of ages z15 years. HPV testing was done using PCR-based enzyme immunoassay. Unconditional logistic regres-sion was used to estimate odds ratios (OR) of being HPV positive and corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (95% CI). Variables were analyzed categorically. When more than two groups were compared, floating confidence intervals were estimated by treating ORs as floating absolute risks. A total of 11,337 women (mean age, 41.9 years) were available. We confirmed that lifetime number of sexual partners i