Aro K, et al. - A total of 1,279 women who were referred to colposcopy for abnormal cytology were included in a population-based study on HPV type distribution in diagnostic cervical samples to determine age-specific HPV type distribution in high-grade cervical disease in screened and unvaccinated women. About 503 patients with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or worse (HSIL+) were diagnosed. Two hundred and eighty-five of HSIL+ cases correlated with HPV16/18 and 64.3% were in women <30 years (reference group), 58.4% in women 30-44.9 years and 35.1% in women ≥45 years of age. Conversely, other high-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPV) were related to 191 of HSIL+, out of which 31.9% in women <30, 36.8% in women 30-44.9 years, 54.6% and in women ≥45. With progressing age, the proportion of non-vaccine targeted hrHPV and HPV negative HSIL+ rose. Pre-vaccination HPV type distribution in HSIL+ was clearly split by age with HPV16/18-caused disease being considerably more prevalent in women aged <30. In elderly women, the other hrHPV types dominated inferring a necessity for more age-dependent screening strategies.