Psychosexual Impact on a Sample of Hispanic Women With Human Papillomavirus

Our study investigates the psychosexual impact of human papillomavirus (HPV) diagnosis and its associated conditions on Hispanic women living in Puerto Rico.

A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted on 205 women between 21 and 65 years old who received services at the Gynecology Clinics of the Medical Sciences Campus from April 2019 to December 2019. After obtaining approval from the institutional review board (March 27, 2019) and the informed consent of participants, participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and 4 psychological symptomatology-based questionnaires that measured levels of anxiety, depression, sexual satisfaction, and self-esteem.

Of the participants, 48.8% had a known diagnosis of HPV ( n = 100) compared with 51.2% without a known HPV diagnosis ( n = 105). A Mann-Whitney U test analysis for independent samples was used, which showed that patients with known HPV diagnoses had higher reported levels of anxiety in the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale with a statistical significance of 0.03, as compared with patients without a known HPV diagnosis. There was no significant difference in reported levels of depressive symptoms, self-esteem, or sexual satisfaction between the groups.

Our findings show that in this group of Hispanic women living in Puerto Rico, being diagnosed with HPV and its associated conditions can be associated with higher anxiety symptoms. Further studies are warranted in this population to help improve their health outcomes and access to proper primary and preventive care.