Taiwanese Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology · Mar 2026

Genotype-specific prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus among cytologically normal women in Taiwan

By Weng CS, Chen RC, Chen HJ et al.

OBJECTIVE: Taiwan launched human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing at ages 35, 45, and 65 years to improve cervical cancer screening. However, age- and genotype-specific prevalence data for high-risk HPV (hrHPV) in routine screening populations are limited. We aimed to provide the baseline genotype-specific hrHPV prevalence among cytologically normal women in New Taipei City. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study between 2022 and 2023 using opportunistic sampling within organized public sector screening services. Women aged ≥30 years underwent co-testing with a Papanicolaou (Pap) smear and HPV DNA using the Roche Cobas test. Descriptive statistics were used to report the hrHPV prevalence, including age distribution and screening history. RESULTS: Among 7,129 women with normal cytology, the overall high-risk HPV prevalence was 4.2 %. HPV-16-only and HPV-18-only accounted for 0.38 % and 0.22 %, with additional co-infections in 0.10 % and 0.03 %, respectively. The combined prevalence of the non-16/18 high-risk genotypes was 3.48 %. Both HPV-16 and HPV-18 were most frequently detected among women aged 45-54 years in terms of case distribution. Age-specific prevalence for overall hrHPV and HPV-16 peaked among women aged 30-44 years and declined significantly with increasing age (p-for-trend = 0.048 and 0.016, respectively). hrHPV prevalence did not differ significantly across Pap-smear screening intervals. Self-reported familiarity with HPV DNA testing was higher in women aged 30-35 years (44.6 %) and lowest in those ≥65 years (12.6 %). CONCLUSION: This study provided updated hrHPV prevalence estimates that may inform age-based screening strategies and underscored the need for genotype surveillance and risk-based triage approaches.

doi.org/10.1016/j.tjog.2025.09.026Open accessPubMed 41813384Populations