Table 7.

Demographic and descriptive characteristics of the Epidemiologic HPV Survey participants at baseline

Characteristics	N=4452	%‡
Age (years)
17	1295	29.1
18	1349	30.3
19	1040	23.4
20	768 (	17.3
Region †
GAM East	2062	46.3
GAM West	1180	26.5
Pacific	987	22.2
North	223	5.0
Highest level of education completed
Primary or lower	359	8.1
Secondary	3212	72.3
University	628	14.1
Technical School	241	5.4
DK/Refuse/Missing	12
Smoking
Never	2819	63.5
Ever	1623	36.5
DK/Refuse/Missing	10
BMI
Low (<18.5 kg/m2)	437	9.8
Normal (18.5 to <25 kg/m2)	2491	56.0
High (25+ kg/m2)	1524	34.2
Age at menarche (years)
≤10	648	14.9
11	947	21.8
12	1552	35.7
13	669	15.4
14+	533	12.3
DK/Refuse/Missing	103
Ever pregnant
No	3688	82.8
Yes	764	17.2
Hormonal contraceptive use
Never	2385	53.6
Ever	2067	46.4
Ever had genital warts
No	4285	96.2
Yes	167	3.8
Ever had sex with a man
Never	1360	31.0
Ever	3030	69.0
DK/Refuse/Missing	62
Age at sexual debut
No sexual debut	1360	31.2
≤14	629	14.4
15	689	15.8
16	634	14.5
17	561	12.9
18	355	11.5
19	100	5.7
20	30	4.0
DK/Refuse/Missing	94
Lifetime number of sexual partners among sexually active
0	1360
1	1214	41.3
2	676	23.0
3 or more	1053	35.8
DK/Refuse/Missing	149
Number of sexual partners in the last 12 months among sexually active
No sexual debut	1360
None	399	13.4
1	1860	62.4
2	433	14.5
3 or more	290	9.7
DK/Refuse/Missing	110
Age of the sexual partner at time of sexual debut among sexually active (years)
No sexual debut	1360
≤16	631	21.7
17	556	19.1
18	486	16.7
19	297	10.2
20	293	10.1
21+	644	22.2
DK/Refuse/Missing	185

GAM, Greater Metropolitan Area; DK, Don’t know; BMI, Body mass index.

^‡Don’t know, refuse and missing values are not taken into account for the calculation of the percentages.

^†GAM East includes districts from Cartago and San Jose provinces; GAM West includes districts from Alajuela and Heredia provinces; Pacific includes districts from Guanacaste, parts of Puntarenas provinces and from Upala canton; North includes districts from San Carlos canton.