Cigarette smoking, herpes simplex virus type 2 infection, and cervical abnormalities

Abstract

In a case-control study, we investigated the relation of cigarette smoking and genital herpes virus infection to cervical abnormalities. Although cases and controls differed according to several factors, multiple logistic analyses indicated that age, education, and cigarette smoking were the only independent risk factors for histologically confirmed disease. Relative risk estimates were 1.92 and 3.68 for past and current smokers, respectively. The results indicated that smoking and genital herpes infection did not interact in the risk of cervical abnormality.