Vaccinating girls against the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) does not make them more likely to have sex, according to a new study. The findings are the latest in a string of research showing that vaccination does not encourage promiscuity, the authors say, and should go a long way in extinguishing lingering concerns about "disinhibition" among pre-teenage girls who receive the vaccine.

In findings published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday, investigators combed the electronic medical records of nearly 1,400 girls who were between the ages 11 and 12 from 2006 to 2007 -- the year following the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the first vaccine. Nearly 500 of the girls had received it; 900 had not.

Vaccination was not linked to any increased sexual activity, according to the measures used by the researchers.

"This article supports what several years of data have shown again and again," said Gypsyamber D'Souza, an assistant professor at the cancer prevention and control program at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who did not work on the study. "There are no differences in sexual behavior in those getting the vaccine compared those who have not."

In 2011, some 80 percent of teens were vaccinated against tetanus, an infection of the nervous system, and 70 percent against meningitis, an infection of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. But only 35 percent of teenage girls received the full three doses of the HPV vaccine, which has been recommended for all girls age 11 or 12 by the CDC since 2006. (The recommendation also extends to women up to age 26 who were not vaccinated when they were younger.) The vaccine protects against infection by certain strains of HPV, about 30 types of which can lead to cervical cancer in women.

Davis said parents' fears about risky sexual behavior are a powerful deterrent, but expressed hope that the new findings could impact their thinking.