Oral Sexual Behaviors Associated with Prevalent Oral Human Papillomavirus Infection

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 199; no. 9; pp. 1263 - 1269
• Main Authors: D’Souza, Gypsyamber, Agrawal, Yuri, Halpern, Jane, Bodison, Sacared, Gillison, Maura L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford The University of Chicago Press 01-05-2009; University of Chicago Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Case control studies; Continental Population Groups; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disease transmission; Ethnic Groups; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Head and Neck Neoplasms - epidemiology; Head and Neck Neoplasms - immunology; Head and Neck Neoplasms - virology; Heterosexuality; Homosexuality; Human papillomavirus; Human sexual behavior; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Kissing; Male; Medical sciences; Men; Microbiology; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Mouth Diseases - epidemiology; Mouth Diseases - virology; Multivariate Analysis; Oral sex; Oropharyngeal Neoplasms - epidemiology; Oropharyngeal Neoplasms - immunology; Oropharyngeal Neoplasms - virology; Papillomavirus infections; Papillomavirus Infections - epidemiology; Papillomavirus Infections - immunology; Papillomavirus Vaccines - therapeutic use; Prevalence; Sexual Behavior - statistics & numerical data; Tobacco smoking; Tobacco use; Virology; Viruses; Young Adult; Papillomavirus; Virus; Infection; Human papillomavirus; Microbiology; Sexual behavior; Papovaviridae
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1086/597755

Oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a cause of oropharyngeal cancer. We investigated whether sexual behaviors that elevated the odds of oropharyngeal cancer developing in a case-control study similarly elevated the odds of oral HPV infection developing among control patients. HPV infection was detected in 4.8% of 332 control patients from an outpatient clinic and in 2.9% of 210 college-aged men (age range, 18–23 years). Among control patients, the odds of infection developing independently increased with increases in the lifetime number of oral (P=.007, for trend) or vaginal sex partners (P=.003, for trend). Among college-aged men, the odds of oral HPV infection developing increased with increases in the number of recent oral sex partners (P=.046, for trend) or open-mouthed kissing partners (P=.023, for trend) but not vaginal sex partners. Oral sex and open-mouthed kissing are associated with the development of oral HPV infection