The Impact of the HPV Vaccine on Preterm Birth in British Columbia

Elisabeth McClymont; Arianne Albert; Sela Grays; Gal Av-Gay; Marette Lee; Gina Ogilvie; Deborah Money; Chelsea Elwood

doi:10.1016/j.jogc.2025.103032

The Impact of the HPV Vaccine on Preterm Birth in British Columbia

J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2025 Jul 10:103032. doi: 10.1016/j.jogc.2025.103032. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Elisabeth McClymont¹, Arianne Albert², Sela Grays², Gal Av-Gay², Marette Lee³, Gina Ogilvie⁴, Deborah Money³, Chelsea Elwood³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Electronic address: elisabeth.mcclymont@cw.bc.ca.
² Women's Health Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁴ School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

PMID: 40651577
DOI: 10.1016/j.jogc.2025.103032

Abstract

Objective: Recent evidence has suggested that HPV vaccination may reduce the risk of preterm birth. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of linking existing provincial databases to begin to understand if the risk of preterm birth is lower in HPV-vaccinated women in British Columbia.

Methods: In this population-based retrospective cohort study of women delivering infants in BC, data on birth outcomes and HPV vaccination status from the BC Perinatal Data Registry and the Panorama Public Health Information System were linked. We compared the overall and spontaneous preterm birth rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated women using logistic regression.

Results: Among women who were age eligible for HPV vaccination in school-based programs, there were 5447 deliveries from 5399 individuals between 2015-2018. Of these, 2925 (54.2%) women had been vaccinated in the school-based program. Overall and spontaneous preterm birth were significantly associated with previous preterm delivery and maternal substance use, but not found to be associated with HPV vaccination status.

Conclusion: We were readily able to link provincial databases to assess the role of HPV vaccination in preterm birth risk. These pilot data did not show a significant association between HPV vaccination status and preterm birth. Subsequent larger studies are warranted to better assess for the presence of a relationship, which may promote vaccination and result in improved reproductive outcomes for women and their infants.

Keywords: human papillomavirus viruses; papillomavirus vaccines; premature birth; women.