Abstract: Objective To analyse infection status and subgenotype distribution characteristics of human papillomavirus(HPV) in gynecologic outpatients.Methods Totally 2 701 outpatients visiting Gynecologic Department of the Eighth People's Hospital of Shanghai between May 2009 and December 2012 were selected.The outpatients were detected for 21 HPV genotypes by reverse DNA dot hybridization technique.Results The overall HPV infection rate among the outpatients was 33.65%.For the 21 HPV subgenotypes,the infection rate of HPV 16(6.85%) and HPV 52(6.85%) were the highest,and that of HPV 58,HPV53 and HPV11 were 6.18%,3.74% and 3.70%,respectively.Up to 83.82% of the infected women were between the age of 16 to 45 years.The infection rate of different age group was different significantly.The infection rate of women aged 16 to 25 years was the highest(36.82%),while the women more than 66 years old was the lowest(16.36%).There were up to 7 HPV subtypes being detected positively in one woman.The single subtype infection rate was 22.84% and the multiple infection rate was 10.81%.The high-risk subtype infection rate was 24.58%,while the low-risk subtype was 4.59%,and the high and low risk mixed infection rate was 4.48%.The rates of high,low,and high-low risk mixed infection rate among the women of various age were significantly different.For high-risk subtype infection,the infection rate of the women aged 26 to 35 years was the highest,while the women aged 16-25 years had the higest low-risk infection rate and the women more than 66 year old had the highest high-low risk mixed infection rate.Conclusion The most common HPV subtype infection were HPV 16,52,58,53 and HPV 11 and for the women aged 16 to 45 years,single HPV subtype infection and high-risk HPV infection were common,with multiple subtypes HPV infeetion among the women in Shanghai.