Bacterial vaginosis and cervical human papillomavirus infection in young and adult women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in young and adult women. METHODS: This systematic review and meta-analysis was based on the Prisma methodological guidelines. PubMed and Web of Science were searched using the following descriptors: “bacterial vaginosis and HPV”, in June 2019. Articles published from 2012 to 2019 were included. Inclusion criteria were original studies that investigated the association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical HPV infection; articles published in English, Spanish or Portuguese; studies conducted in young and adult, non-pregnant, non-HIV-infected women; studies that used the Nugent criteria for the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis and studies in which the detection of HPV used the polymerase chain reaction technique. Assembled data, odds ratio (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were estimated for the association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical HPV infection using random-effects models. A bilateral value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULT: Six studies were selected for analysis and demonstrated association between bacterial vaginosis and cervical HPV infection (OR = 2.68; 95%CI: 1.64–4.40; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Bacterial vaginosis was considered a risk factor for cervical HPV infection, since women with bacterial vaginosis were more likely to be infected with HPV.