Low vaccination coverage for human papillomavirus disease among young men who have sex with men, France, 2019

BACKGROUND: In France, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has been recommended in 2016 for men who have sex with men (MSM) up to age 26 years. AIM: We aimed to estimate HPV vaccine coverage in 18–28 year-old MSM and identify uptake determinants. METHODS: We collected data on socio-demographic characteristics, sexual behaviour, sexually transmitted diseases (STI) screening and vaccination uptake using a voluntary cross-sectional online survey conducted in 2019 targeting MSM. We calculated coverage of at least one dose of HPV vaccine and prevalence ratios (PR) of determinants with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using Poisson regression. RESULTS: Of 9,469 respondents (age range: 18–28 years), 15% (95% CI: 14–16) reported being vaccinated for HPV. Coverage was significantly higher among MSM < 24 years (PR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.13–1.39), with education level below university degree (PR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.08–1.32), living in rural areas (PR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.08–1.36), attending sex parties (PR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.03–1.33), using HIV-related biomedical prevention methods (PR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.12–1.54), with STI diagnosis (PR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.08–1.38) and with hepatitis A or B vaccination (PR: 4.56; 95% CI: 3.63–5.81 vs PR: 3.35; 95% CI: 2.53–4.44). CONCLUSIONS: The HPV vaccination uptake among MSM in France was not satisfactory. It was higher among MSM benefitting from other vaccinations and biomedical preventive methods against HIV, suggesting a synergistic effect of the national preventive sexual health recommendations for MSM. Further efforts to improve HPV vaccination coverage targeting MSM are warranted.