Abstract
Background and objectives Imprisoned women have higher rates of abnormalities at cervical screening and some studies suggest that cervical cancer is the most common cancer in this population. The aim of this work was to summarise the current evidence on the prevalence of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection, cervical cancer and precancerous lesions in women in prison worldwide and to compare these rates with the general population.
Methods We systematically searched and reviewed published and unpublished data reporting the prevalence of any HPV infection, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical cancer in imprisoned women. We created forest plots with prevalence estimates from studies with comparable outcomes and of prevalence ratios using data from national screening programmes as a comparison group.
Findings A total of 53 533 imprisoned women from 10 countries and 35 studies were included in the review. The prevalence of HPV among prisoners ranged from 10.5% to 55.4% with significant heterogeneity. The prevalence of CIN diagnosed by cytology in prisoners ranged from 0% to 22%. Ratios comparing the prevalence of CIN in imprisoned women to that in the community ranged from 1.13 to 5.46. Cancer prevalence estimates were at least 100 times higher than in populations participating in national screening programmes.
Conclusion Imprisoned women are at higher risk of cervical cancer than the general population. There is a high prevalence of HPV infection and precancerous lesions in this population. Targeted programmes for control of risk factors and the development of more effective cervical screening programmes are recommended.
PROSPERO registration number CRD42014009690.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 95-102 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health |
Volume | 74 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 23 Oct 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Dec 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information: This work was undertaken when NE was an MSc student at the University of Oxford. EP was employed by the University of Oxford at that time.Open Access: No Open Access licence.
Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Author(s) (or their employer(s)). No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
Citation: Escobar N, Plugge E Prevalence of human papillomavirus infection, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer in imprisoned women worldwide: a systematic review and meta-analysis J Epidemiol Community Health 2020;74:95-102.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2019-212557
Keywords
- cancer epidemiology
- cancer: cervix
- health inequalities
- prevention
- public health