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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Family affiliation and prostitution in a cultural context: career onsets of Taiwanese prostitutes.

American researchers emphasize family disaffiliation resulting from negative experiences as an important career contingency for prostitutes. They suggest that cohesive families insulate daughters from entering prostitution, an implication that ignores cultural variations within the United States and worldwide. This study examined the nature of family affiliations among prostitutes in Taiwan, a nation characterized by strong family cohesion and widespread prostitution. The traditional status and role of daughters in Taiwanese families is described. A sample of 89 prostitutes were interviewed in Taipei. The majority had good or very good relationships with their parents before the women left home and continued to maintain such relationships. Only 10% mentioned negative family experiences as precipitating factors in the decision to enter prostitution. A typology of career onsets was drafted. About one third of the sample entered the occupation out of a sense of filial obligation toward their families of origin. Other precipitating factors included paying off their own or husbands' debts, upgrading their financial status, deriving other satisfactions from the life-style, escaping from difficulties with parents or husbands, and being victimized by force or fraud. Several social changes are likely to lessen the importance of filial obligation as a career contingency of prostitution. Speculations about the future of Taiwanese prostitution are offered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Prostitution and risk of HIV: female prostitutes in London.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the prevalence of HIV and to describe established risk factors in female prostitutes. DESIGN: A cross sectional survey. SETTING: A genitourinary medicine clinic, streets, and magistrates' courts in London. SUBJECTS: 280 female prostitutes recruited between April 1989 and August 1991. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Infection with HIV-1, reported risk behaviours, and prevalence of sexually transmitted infections. RESULTS: 228 of the women had HIV tests, and two (0.9% (95% confidence interval 0% to 2.1%)) were infected with HIV-1. Reported use of condoms was high for commercial clients and low for non-paying partners: 98% (251/255) of women used condoms with all clients and 12% (25/207) with non-paying partners for vaginal intercourse. Twenty two women were current or past injecting drug users. Of the 193 women examined for sexually transmitted infections, 27 had an acute infection (gonorrhoea, chlamydia, trichomonas, or primary genital herpes) at the time of interview. Infection was associated with younger age and increasing numbers of non-paying sexual partners, but not with duration of prostitution, numbers of clients, or reports of condom failures. When age and numbers of non-paying partners were analysed by logistic regression they remained significantly associated with sexually transmitted infections. CONCLUSIONS: A large and diverse sample of prostitutes had a low prevalence of infection with HIV and high levels of use of condoms in commercial sex. There was a significant risk of other sexually transmitted infections associated with prostitutes' non-commercial sexual relationships, in which unprotected sex is common. Interventions to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections in prostitutes should address both commercial and non-commercial sexual partnerships.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1993

Prostitution and risk of HIV: male partners of female prostitutes.

OBJECTIVE: To describe risk behaviours for infection with HIV in male sexual partners of female prostitutes. DESIGN: A cross sectional study. SETTING: Genitourinary medicine clinic, St Mary's Hospital, London. SUBJECTS: 112 self identified male sexual partners of female prostitutes: 101 who reported commercial sexual relationships only, five who reported non-commercial relationships only, and six who reported both commercial and non-commercial relationships. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Reported risk behaviours for infection with HIV. RESULTS: Of the 40 men who had had previous HIV tests or were tested during the study, two (5%) were infected with HIV. Of the men who would answer the questions, 34/94 reported having sex with other men, 2/105 reported using injected drugs, 8/105 had a history of blood transfusion, 14/108 reported a past history of gonorrhoea, 44/102 reported paying for sex abroad, and 8/92 said that they had also been paid for sex. Of the 55 men who reported paying for vaginal intercourse in the past year, 45 (82%) said that they had always used a condom. In contrast, of the 11 non-paying partners of prostitutes, only two (18%) reported ever using a condom with their partners. CONCLUSIONS: Men who have sex with female prostitutes cannot be assumed to be at risk of infection with HIV only by this route: homosexual contact may place them at greater risk. Despite the heterogeneity among male sexual partners of prostitutes, patterns of use of condoms were uniform when they were considered as a reflection of the type of relationship a man had with a female prostitute rather than a consequence of an individual's level of risk.

Condoms↗
PubMed1988

Prostitution in Sheffield: differences between prostitutes.

This study to assess differences between street walking prostitutes and sauna girls who attended this clinic in 1986 and 1987 showed that fewer street walkers used barrier methods for disease prevention with clients or accepted tests for antibody to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) when offered and more street walkers practised their profession in both Sheffield and London. They therefore represent a potential pathway for the heterosexual spread of HIV to the region. Trichomonas vaginalis was the only organism more commonly isolated from street walkers. Other sexually transmitted diseases diagnosed, and the sources of acquisition of gonococcal cervicitis, were similar in both groups of prostitutes. Prostitutes rarely used barrier methods with their regular consorts, who were found to be responsible for most cases of gonorrhoea in both groups. As 11 out of 58 prostitutes attending were found to have dysplasia on routine cervical cytological examination, we suggest that all prostitutes be advised to undergo cytology yearly.

Contraception Behavior↗
PubMed1990

"Prostitutes as pariah in the age of AIDS": a content analysis of coverage of women prostitutes in The New York Times and the Washington Post September 1985-April 1988.

Misrepresentation in the media portrays women prostitutes as sexual transmitters of AIDS to men. Yet careful study of the available data shows male-to-female transmission of the HIV virus is the overwhelming mode of heterosexual transmission of AIDS. Content analysis is performed to analyze the role newspaper coverage played from 1985 through early 1988 in the social construction of prostitutes as a new target group for AIDS. The results show little concern for the health of prostitutes at risk for AIDS, but rather for their role as possible disease vectors. That women prostitutes were eagerly singled out as a target group despite a dearth of evidence points in large measure to their precarious position in society. And it highlights the impact media has when it acts as an uncritical sounding-board for government and medical press releases about a disease with dire social as well as physical consequences.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1989

[Seroprevalence of AIDS in Chilean male and female prostitutes. II. Male prostitution].

ELISA test to detect HIV-1 antibodies was performed to 65 homosexuals and homosexual male prostitutes in a Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Clinic in Santiago de Chile together with a survey about risk factors. It was found that 40 of them (62%) practice prostitution with a rate of 1.5% clients per day. All the studied group presented dissemination of HIV risk factors like low frequency usage of condom, patients hide their homosexual condition, they have donated blood, they do not manifest an attitude towards changing their behaviors and have had intercourse with the opposite sex. We found 1 (1.54%) seropositive confirmed by Western blot in a homosexual who does not practice prostitution.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1993

HIV prevalence and risk behaviour among prostitutes and clients in Amsterdam: migrants at increased risk for HIV infection.

OBJECTIVES: To study groups of prostitutes and clients of prostitutes in order (i) to determine HIV prevalence and sexual risk behaviour, (ii) to determine differences between samples recruited within and outside a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and (iii) to determine correlates of inconsistent condom use (ICU) among both groups. DESIGN: Participants were interviewed and anonymously tested for HIV-antibody; approximately half were recruited at a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and half at prostitute working places. SETTING: An STD clinic and prostitute working places in Amsterdam in 1991. SUBJECTS: 201 female prostitutes without a history of injecting drugs and 213 male clients of female prostitutes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: antibodies to HIV, consistency of condom use in commercial vaginal contacts in the preceding 6 months. RESULTS: HIV prevalence was low: three prostitutes (1.5%; 95% CI 0.5-4.6%) and one client (0.5%; 95% CI 0.1-3.3%) were infected. All three HIV positive prostitutes originated from AIDS-endemic countries, came to the Netherlands only recently and were recruited outside the STD clinic. Large differences between subgroups resulted from the two recruitment methods: while clients of prostitutes with relatively high risk behaviour were strongly represented among the STD clinic sample, high risk prostitutes were underrepresented in this sample. Consistent condom use (with 100% of contacts) was reported by 66% of prostitutes and 56% of clients of prostitutes. Inconsistent condom use was found to be high among prostitutes who had migrated from Latin America and among migrant clients of prostitutes. CONCLUSIONS: When monitoring HIV infection one must take into account imported cases. HIV prevention efforts should be particularly focused at prostitutes from Latin America and at clients of prostitutes who migrated to the Netherlands.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
PubMed1992

Varied potential risks of HIV infection among prostitutes.

To date, most HIV prevention programs targeting North American prostitutes have focused on individual behaviour change, and in particular, the consistent use of condoms between prostitutes and their clients. The organizational and societal level issues which may influence high risk practices within the working and private spheres have received relatively little attention. In addition, most prevention efforts have been limited to targeting the sub-population of street prostitutes. We outline here three different types of prostitutes (street prostitutes, escorts, and prostitutes who work part time in the service sector, i.e. barmaids and erotic massage therapists) known to work in many North American centres. In doing so, we suggest that potential risks of infection vary according to the type of prostitution, and that prevention programs must recognize the diversity in potential risk practices. Differences in the organization of work and working conditions of varied types of prostitutes may, in particular, influence risk practices while working. Some of the individual, organizational and societal level issues which influence risk practices among different types of prostitutes are presented. Much of the research involving HIV and prostitutes has accessed prostitutes at sites where street prostitutes are over-represented. Other studies are based on potentially baised samples as they have recruited prostitutes from medical clinics. Methodologic problems that influence attempts to obtain a representative sample of the prostitute population are discussed.

HIV Infections↗
PubMed1989

Drug use by prostitutes in Sydney.

We report a comparative study of drug consumption by 277 female prostitutes and 95 women who had never worked as prostitutes, attending the Sydney STD Centre in 1985 and 1987. Marijuana was the drug most often used by prostitutes and non-prostitutes, followed by sleeping pills, amphetamines, cocaine and heroin. About 12% in both groups used intravenous drugs but prostitutes were significantly more likely to share needles and syringes. Prostitutes were also more likely to smoke cigarettes than non-prostitutes, and young prostitutes smoked significantly more heavily than other women in the study. Although fewer prostitutes than non-prostitutes drank alcohol, those who did drink were more likely to do so at a harmful level. We conclude that where differences in drug consumption exist between prostitutes and non-prostitutes, they are mainly work related.

Adult↗