In contrast, at 24 months assessment, higher mRNA E6 & E7 positivity rates were documented in both groups (6.3%/10% NASBA/flow outcomes, and 17.8%/18.3% NASBA/flow results), a finding marginally significant ( p = 0.0448) when considering the NASBA method but insignificant for the flow approach.
In our study, at 6-months post-op, although the percentage of HPV mRNA positive women was lower in the consistent users’ group (1.6%/7.1%, NASBA/flow outcomes) than in the inconsistent users’ group (8%/16.4% ,NASBA/flow results), this did not reach statistical significance, due to the small number of positive cases.
In summary, women with consistent condom use not only had lower HPV DNA positivity rates both after 6 and 24 months, as compared to women with inconsistent condom use, but, additionally, they illustrated a decreasing trend for HPV DNA positivity rate over time (from 23% to 13%), while inconsistent users had an increasing HPV positivity rate (from 62% to 71%).
Nevertheless, HPV mRNA positivity rates for compliant women were again lower than incompliant ones, despite exhibiting an increasing trend longitudinally for both groups, a finding requiring further investigation.