HPV Cancer Rates Higher in Counties with High Vaccines Rates

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates in Alabama counties correlate with the highest incident rates of HPV-related cancer, according to data presented at the Society for Gynecologic Oncology’s 50th Annual Meeting. 

The study “sought to understand factors associated with HPV vaccination uptake across counties by overlapping HPV-related cancer risk and epidemiologic factors associated with access to vaccination services.” In Alabama, the cervical cancer incidence rate is higher than the US rate with counties ranging from 33% to 66%. 

“The higher the rate of cancer in the county, the higher the rate of vaccination,” said study author  Jennifer Young Pierce, MD, MPH, USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute. 

A press release from the Society for Gynecologic Oncology about the study stated that out of Alabama’s 67 counties, 32 are considered rural and 40 suffer from poverty levels below the state average. Dr Pierce and colleagues expected to see lower HPV vaccine uptake in Alabama’s rural counties, which would be align with data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

“Instead,” according to press release, “the data showed little difference in HPV vaccine uptake between metro and rural areas or affluent and impoverished counties. The seven counties with the highest HPV vaccine uptake, in fact, were all rural areas with above average poverty rates.”

“It was exactly the opposite of what we expected,” said Dr Pierce. “In the rest of the country, there’s an urban/rural disparity, an 11-point difference between rural and urban vaccine uptake, and we do not see that in Alabama. If you take all the rural counties and all the urban counties, it’s more even.”

Dr Pierce and colleagues also discovered a significant link between higher HPV vaccine uptake in patients who receive government-funded health care and observed the highest vaccine rates in counties without a pediatrician. 

“Efforts to increase HPV vaccine uptake should consider a focus on perceived risk of HPV-related cancer as this appears to overcome more traditional health disparities resulting in higher vaccination in rural counties and adolescents with public insurance compared to their more affluent peers,” Dr Pierce and colleagues concluded.—Edan Stanley