Bacterial vaginosis, cervical Human Papillomavirus infection and cervical cytological abnormalities in adult women in Central Brazil: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: Bacterial vaginosis is the most common cause of vaginal discharge and occurs when there is an imbalance in the vaginal microbiota, predominantly composed of Lactobacillus spp. Human Papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the world. Persistent infection with high-risk Human Papillomavirus genotypes is the main cause of the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer. Objective: To investigate the association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical Human Papillomavirus infection and between bacterial vaginosis and cervical cytological abnormalities in adult women. Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out in a gynecology outpatient clinic of the public health network. A total of 202 women were included in the study and underwent gynecological examination with cervical specimen collection. Cervical cytopathological examinations and bacterioscopy by the Nugent method were performed to identify bacterial vaginosis, and PCR and reverse hybridization were carried out for Human Papillomavirus detection and genotyping. Bivariate analysis was performed to investigate the association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical Human Papillomavirus infection, and between bacterial vaginosis and cervical cytological abnormalities. The odds ratio was calculated, with the respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) and 5% significance level (p≤0.05). Results: The prevalence of bacterial vaginosis was 33.2% (67/202), the prevalence of cervical Human Papillomavirus infection was 38.6% (78/202) and the prevalence of cervical cytological abnormalities was 6.0% (12/202). Bivariate analysis showed no significant association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical Human Papillomavirus infection (OR 0.69; 95% CI 0.37–1.27; p=0.23), or between bacterial vaginosis and cervical cytological abnormalities (OR 0.65; 95%CI 0.17–2.50; p=0.54). Conclusion: In this study, bacterial vaginosis did not represent a risk factor for cervical Human Papillomavirus infection or for the presence of cervical cytological abnormalities in the investigated adult women.