OBJECTIVEThis study was designed to determine the prevalence of oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical infections in Beijing, China, and to investigate the odds ratio (OR) of HPV single and multiple infections in abnormal cytology.

METHODSA total of 19,018 specimens from outpatients in the department of obstetric and gynecology were collected. They were detected using high-risk HPV genotyping real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit and analyzed by ThinPrep cytology test for cervical pathological diagnosis. HPV prevalence, age-specific prevalence, and OR of each type of HPV in abnormal cytology were analyzed.

RESULTSOverall, 19.1% (3,623/19,018) of the individuals were positive for HPV infection, 14.9% (2,833/19,018) were positive for a single HPV type, and 4.2% (790/19,018) were positive for multiple types. Among the 3,623 HPV-positive individuals, the most predominant HPV types were HPV52 (4.4%, 834/19,018), HPV16 (3.7%, 710/19,018), and HPV58 (3.4%, 644/19,018). The OR of multiple infections and single infection differed significantly among disease severities. The OR of dual infection was higher than that of each of the two single infection types, respectively.

CONCLUSIONHPV prevalence in the outpatients was 19.1%, and the most predominant HPV types in the study were HPV52, HPV16, and HPV58. Women with multiple infectionswere more likely to have abnormal cytology.