Association between Serum Folate and Vaginal High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Infections in United States Women

Serum concentration of folate was inversely associated with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer in some studies. The association between folate and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, a necessary cause of cervical cancer, has not been well elucidated. We evaluated whether serum folate concentrations were associated with high-risk HPV (hrHPV) infection. The study population was 11,801 females, aged 18–59 y, enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), from 2003 to 2016, in the United States. In this cross-sectional study, prevalence ratios (PRs) of vaginal hrHPV were calculated using logistic regression models, by quintiles of serum folate. Females in the lowest quintile had