Human papillomavirus vaccine uptake in adolescence and adherence to cervical cancer screening in Switzerland: a national cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVES: The objectives were to measure uptake of and factors associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination initiation and to determine whether HPV vaccination reduced the uptake of cervical cancer screening. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in a random sample of Swiss women aged 18–49 years in 2014 (N = 3588). RESULTS: Vaccination initiation was 69.3% and full coverage (three doses) 54.1% for 18–20-year olds, respectively, 42.4% and 33.9% for 21–24-year olds. Women with ≥ 10 lifetime sexual partners were less likely to have received any HPV vaccination than women with ≤ 2 partners (18–20 years OR 0.2, 21–24 years OR 0.5). Amongst 1000 unvaccinated women (18–24 years), reasons for not having initiated vaccination were lack of information (22.5%) and fear of vaccine side effects (18.1%). Vaccination status was not associated with adherence to cervical cancer screening recommendations (OR 1.3). 95.4% of all vaccinated participants knew about the continued need for screening. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that HPV vaccination is not associated with reduced uptake of cervical cancer screening. This study provides information that can be used to improve HPV vaccination uptake in Switzerland. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00038-017-1050-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.