Implementing HPV Vaccinations At A Young Age is Significant For Vaccine Effectiveness

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Initial vaccinations for human papillomavirus (HPV) at a young age is important for maximizing quadrivalent HPV vaccine effectiveness according to a Swedish study published March 13 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute .

HPV vaccination programs have been launched around the world in hopes of preventing cervical cancer and other HPV-related cancers. While incidence of genital warts is the earliest possible disease outcome to measure the efficacy of the HPV vaccine, the results of such efficacy trials may not be fully generalizable to real-life HPV vaccination programs. Furthermore, incidence of genital warts after on-demand vaccination with quadrivalent HPV vaccine using individual-level data remains unknown.

In order to determine the effectiveness of HPV vaccines at various vaccination ages, Amy Leval, Ph.D., R.N., of the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues, looked at the cohort of all females ages 10 to 44 years living in Sweden between 2006–2010 who were linked to multiple population registers to identify genital warts incidence in relation to HPV vaccination. Incidence rate ratios of genital warts were estimated using time-to-event analyses with adjustment for attained age and parental education level, stratified by age at first vaccination.