Human Papillomavirus Vaccination at a Time of Changing Sexual Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence varies widely worldwide. We used a transmission model to show links between age-specific sexual patterns and HPV vaccination effectiveness. We considered rural India and the United States as examples of 2 heterosexual populations with traditional age-specific sexual behavior and gender-similar age-specific sexual behavior, respectively. We simulated these populations by using age-specific rates of sexual activity and age differences between sexual partners and found that transitions from traditional to gender-similar sexual behavior in women <35 years of age can result in increased (2.6-fold in our study) HPV16 prevalence. Our model shows that reductions in HPV16 prevalence are larger if vaccination occurs in populations before transitions in sexual be

SUBMITTER: Baussano I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4696692 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature