To investigate the epidemiological distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and the knowledge of prophylactic vaccine in outpatient screening of female population, and to provide evidence for the prevention and treatment of cervical lesions.

Epidemiological data of female patients who were screened for HPV in gynecological outpatient clinic of Suizhou Hospital Affiliated to Hubei University of Medicine from January 2017 to December 2017 were collected and their cognition of HPV and vaccination were investigated by questionnaire.

The infection rate of HPV in outpatient opportunistic screening was 16.55% (143/864). There was significant difference in HPV infection rate among different age groups (χ² = 23.61, P < 0.001). The genotypes of HPV infection were mostly single-type infection (73.43%), multiple genotypes infection accounted for 26.57% (38/143). High risk subtype infection accounted for 70.63%, the most subtypes of which were HPV16, 58 and 52; the low risk type accounted for 29.37%, among which, HPV 81, 11 and 42 were the most common. In the questionnaire survey, HPV cognition was correlated with age and educational level (χ² = 70.89, 70.63; all P < 0.001), but was not related to household registration (χ² = 1.85, P = 0.17). There were 27.39% (309/1 128) investigated crowd knew HPV infection, 20.12% (227/ 1 128) knew HPV vaccine, 37.59% (424/1 128) were willing to be vaccinated, only 12% (51/424) of them were willing to be vaccinated at their own expense; the price of HPV vaccine is the main factor affecting the acceptance.

HPV infection rate was high and the awareness and prevention of HPV was low among the female population with opportunistic screening. The precancerous screening of HPV should be strengthened and the awareness and acceptance of HPV vaccine should be actively promoted.