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Published on: March 8, 2012
Self-reported Human Papillomavirus Vaccination and Vaccine Effectiveness Among Men Who Have Sex with Men: A
Catharine Chambers1,2, Shelley L Deeks3,4, Rinku Sutradhar1,5
1From the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Background:
Self-report of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination has ~80-90% sensitivity and ~75-85% specificity. We measured the effect of nondifferential exposure misclassification associated with self-reported vaccination on vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates.
Methods:
Between 2017-2019, we recruited sexually active gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men aged 16-30 years in Canada. VE was derived as 1-prevalence ratio × 100% for prevalent anal HPV infection comparing vaccinated (≥1 dose) to unvaccinated men using a multivariable modified Poisson regression. We conducted a multidimensional and probabilistic quantitative bias analysis to correct VE estimates.
Results:
Bias-corrected VE estimates were relatively stable across sensitivity values but differed from the uncorrected estimate at lower values of specificity. The median adjusted VE was 27% (2.5-97.5th simulation interval = -5-49%) in the uncorrected analysis, increasing to 39% (2.5-97.5th simulation interval = 2-65%) in the bias-corrected analysis.
Conclusion:
A large proportion of participants erroneously reporting HPV vaccination would be required to meaningfully change VE estimates.
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