Genital warts and chlamydia in Australian women: comparison of national population-based surveys in 2001 and 2011.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

Australia introduced a nationwide human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for women aged 12-26 years in 2007 and has implemented various chlamydia control strategies over the last 10 years. We compared reported diagnoses of warts and chlamydia in two national population-based samples surveyed 10 years apart.

METHODS:

An Australia-wide survey of women aged 18-39 years was conducted by random-digit dialling mobile phone numbers in 2011. The proportion of women self-reporting genital warts and chlamydia was compared with that in equivalent-aged women interviewed in another national telephone survey conducted 10 years earlier using logistic regression adjusting for age, and other factors.

RESULTS:

2394 women were included in the 2011 survey. 88 (3.7%) reported a genital warts diagnosis, and 127 (5.3%) had at least one chlamydia diagnosis. For women with warts and chlamydia, the majority were seen in general practice (63.3% and 70.0%, respectively). Comparing women surveyed in 2011 to 4874 women surveyed in 2001, among women eligible for free HPV vaccine through the national programme (women aged 18-30 years), there was a 41% decrease in warts (adjusted OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.89) but among ineligible women (31-39 years) there was a 64% increase (aOR 1.64, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.54). Over the same period chlamydia diagnoses increased by 97% (aOR 1.97, 95% CI 1.15 to 3.37) in women aged 18-24 years.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our results add to evidence from clinic-based studies showing a significant reduction in genital warts among HPV vaccine-eligible women in the general community and increases in the proportion of Australian women diagnosed with chlamydia.

• Authors: Bette Liu, Basil Donovan, Julia M L Brotherton, Marion Saville, John M Kaldor
• Journal: Sexually transmitted infections (Sex Transm Infect) Vol. 90 Issue 7 Pg. 532-7 (Nov 2014) ISSN: 1472-3263 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 24570485 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Chemical References

• Papillomavirus Vaccines

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Australia (epidemiology)
• Chlamydia Infections (epidemiology)
• Condylomata Acuminata (epidemiology, prevention & control)
• Female
• Humans
• Papillomavirus Infections (epidemiology, prevention & control)
• Papillomavirus Vaccines (therapeutic use)
• Self Report
• Young Adult