40% of U.S. women ages 18 to 75 know about human papillomavirus

Forty percent of U.S. women ages 18 to 75 have heard about human papillomavirus and of those women, 20% are aware that it can cause cervical cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute's 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey, which was presented on Sunday at the American Association for Cancer Research's Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Meeting in Boston, Reuters Health reports (Rauscher, Reuters Health, 11/13).

HPV strains 16, 18, 31 and 45 cause more than 80% of cervical cancer cases (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/6).

The survey of 3,076 women found that 64% knew that HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and that 79% knew it can be detected by an abnormal Pap test (AACR meeting release, 11/12).

Younger women, women with higher education levels and women who had been exposed to more health information were more likely to know about HPV than other women, according to the survey.

"[O]ne of our main findings is that being aware of HPV does not guarantee accurate knowledge," Jasmin Tiro of NCI said at the meeting, adding, "[T]he only factors associated with having accurate knowledge -- knowing that it could lead to cervical cancer -- was an abnormal Pap test or testing positive on an HPV test. ... This suggests that most women are finding out about HPV after experiencing a negative consequence."

Tiro noted that the survey was conducted prior to FDA's approval of Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil, adding that the data might be a valuable comparison to measure future levels of HPV knowledge among U.S. women.

Researchers are planning to conduct a similar survey in 2007 examining HPV awareness.

"[W]e need to increase women's knowledge of HPV and cervical cancer before chances of them becoming infected so that they can protect themselves," Trio said (Reuters Health, 11/13).