HPV rates in American Indian women surpass white women

Schmidt-Grimminger DC. BMC Infect Dis. 2011;doi:10.1186/1471-2334-11-252.

Issue: November 2011

The prevalence of human papillomavirus among Northern Plains American Indian women was more than twice that of white women and may contribute to the high rate for cervical cancer in this population.

Delf C. Schmidt-Grimminger, MD, of the Sanford School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota, and the Avera Cancer Institute of Sioux Falls, S.D., and colleagues set out to assess HPV status of cervical samples from women aged 18 to 65 years either attending two American Indian clinics (n=235) or an urban clinic that primarily served white women (n=246) in South Dakota. Data were pooled before the availability of HPV vaccination (between 2006 and 2008).

Compared with 77% of white women who tested negative for HPV, 58% of American Indian women tested negative (P<.001). American Indian women were more likely to have an HPV infection that could not be prevented by vaccination (32% vs. 15%).

Further, American Indian women were aged younger (P=.01), had more sexual partners (P<.001), were infected with a wider variety of HPV types (30% vs. 16%) and had a higher prevalence for mixed HPV infections (19% vs. 7%) when compared with white women.

“These findings suggest that efforts to prevent HPV infection must be tailored to the disease burden, the specific HPV prevalence patterns and the educational and social background of the target community,” the researchers wrote. “If confirmed by future studies, our results might help to explain the documented cervical cancer disparities experienced by American Indian women. As it is, our findings underscore the need to evaluate vaccine efficacy in this population.”

Disclosure: This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute [grant number U01CA114642 to DSB], which supports Native People for Cancer Control, a Community Networks Program.

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