Objectives Moderate alcohol consumption can impair host defence against viral infections. The objective of this cross-sectional analysis was to assess the association between alcohol intake and prevalent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among US men enrolled in the HPV in Men (HIM) study using quantitative alcohol intake measured from a Food Frequency Questionnaire.

Methods The HIM study is a prospective, multinational study of the natural history of HPV infection. For this report, we restricted our analyses to men from the US cohort (N =1313). Samples from the corona of glans penis, penile shaft and scrotum were combined for HPV DNA testing. Self-reported alcohol intake was quantified by grams of alcohol intake per day. Multivariable prevalence ratios (mPRs) were used to assess the association between alcohol intake and HPV infections.

Results Prevalent infections were significantly higher among men in the highest quartile of alcohol intake and multivariable models revealed that the highest quartile of alcohol intake was associated with significantly increased risks for any (mPR=1.13; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.27) HPV types and oncogenic (mPR=1.35; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.68) HPV types. The fourth quartile of alcohol intake was associated with elevated risks for prevalent HPV infection across all strata of number of sexual partners and among never-smokers and current smokers, but not among former smokers.

Conclusions These results demonstrate that high intake of alcohol is associated with an increased risk for prevalent HPV infections among men. The biological role that alcohol plays in genital HPV infection remains understudied and limited epidemiological data exist, especially among men.