LAUSR

Abstract Background A study using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003 to 2006 demonstrated the association between high-risk (oncogenic) human papillomavirus (HPV) and an increased prevalence of the self-reported cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, this study was limited by temporal ambiguity between HPV and CVD, because of its cross-sectional design. We investigated the longitudinal effect of HPV infection on the development of CVD events in a cohort study of Korean women free of CVD at baseline. Methods We conducted a cohort study of 63,411 women aged 30 or older without CVD at baseline who underwent a high-risk HPV test and were followed annually or biennially from 2011 to 2016 for new-onset CVD. CVD was ascertained through the linkage to the Health Insurance and Review Agency database. A Cox-proportional hazards regression model was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of incident CVD. Results The prevalence of high-risk HPV infection was 7.6%. During 261,598.9 person-years of follow-up, 1,122 cases of new-onset CVD were identified (incidence rate of 4.3 per 103 person-years). The age-adjusted HR (95% CI) comparing high-risk HPV-positive- to high-risk HPV-negative participants was 1.26 (1.03–1.53). After further adjustment for possible confounders, a significant association between high-risk HPV infection and incident CVD was still observed, with a corresponding HR (95% CI) of 1.25 (1.03–1.53). This association was stronger in obese (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) compared with non-obese individuals (BMI <25 kg/m2). Otherwise, the associations between high-risk HPV infection and incident CVD did not differ by various clinically relevant subgroups. Conclusion In this large cohort of apparently healthy young and middle-aged women, high-risk HPV infection was significantly associated with an increased risk of developing CVD, indicating a possible role for high-risk HPV in the pathogenesis of CVD. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.