LOS ANGELES — Condom use does matter in human papillomavirus infections, because it is associated with a shorter persistence of infection in females, according to a study of 57 sexually active female adolescents.
The study followed the adolescents for an average 2.2 years and included periods during which the subjects collected vaginal swabs weekly. The study found that those who reported the least-frequent condom use had a mean duration HPV infection of 251 days, vs. 138 days for those reporting the most, Marcia L. Shew, M.D., said at the annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.
Noting that a recent National Institutes of Health report concluded that previous studies have not provided good enough evidence to know if condom use prevents or influences HPV infection and transmission, she said, “We were so excited when we found out that condoms had a role, and it makes sense because condom use has clearly been shown to be associated with more frequent regression in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.”
The study, which, in addition to the weekly vaginal swabs collected by the subjects themselves, looked at cervical swabs collected by the investigators every 3 months, found that 49 of the 57 subjects got at least one infection during the average 2.2 years, for a cumulative incidence of 86%, said Dr. Shew of Indiana University, Indianapolis.
There were 241 infections, or an average of about 5 per individual. Of the infections, 168 were of a high-risk, oncogenic type of papillomavirus, and 73 were of a low-risk type. The types most frequently detected were 52 and 16, high-risk types, and 66, a low-risk type.
Timothy F. Kirn