%0 Journal Article %T Tracking type specific prevalence of human Papillomavirus in cervical pre-cancer: a novel sampling strategy %A Edward K Waters %A John Kaldor %A Andrew J Hamilton %A Anthony MA Smith %A David J Philp %A Basil Donovan %A David G Regan %J BMC Medical Research Methodology %D 2012 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1471-2288-12-77 %X A truncated sequential sampling plan that collects a variable sample size was designed to detect changes in the type-specific distribution of HPV in CIN-3. Computer simulation to evaluate the accuracy of the plan at classifying the prevalence of an HPV type as low (< 5%), moderate (5-15%), or high (> 15%) and the average sample size collected was conducted and used to assess its appropriateness as a surveillance tool.The plan classified the proportion of CIN-3 lesions positive for an HPV type very accurately, with >90% of simulations correctly classifying a simulated data-set with known prevalence. Misclassifying an HPV type of high prevalence as being of low prevalence, arguably the most serious kind of potential error, occurred£¿<£¿0.05 times per 100 simulations. A much lower sample size (21¨C22 versus 40¨C48) was required to classify samples of high rather than low or moderate prevalence.Truncated sequential sampling enables the proportion of CIN-3 due to an HPV type to be accurately classified using small sample sizes. Truncated sequential sampling should be used for type-specific HPV surveillance in the vaccination era. %U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/12/77/abstract