Characteristics of FSWs and their primary, non-commercial male partners in two Mexico–US border cities
| Men | Women | Total | Dyads | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (n=154) | (n=181) | (n=335) | (n=189) | |
| Characteristic* | n (%) | n (%) | n (%) | n (%) |
| Individual-level | ||||
| Sociodemographics | ||||
| Lives in Tijuana | 48 (31.2) | 75 (41.4) | 123 (36.7) | 83 (43.9) |
| Mean age in years (SD) | 37.5 (9.3) | 34.4 (8.9) | 35.8 (9.2) | – |
| Average monthly income ≥2500 pesos (US$∼200) | 95 (63.8) | 111 (63.8) | 206 (63.8) | – |
| Ever forced or coerced to have sex | 19 (12.5) | 52 (29.2) | 71 (21.5) | – |
| Ever physically abused | 33 (21.7) | 57 (32.2) | 90 (27.4) | – |
| Arrested (past 6 months) | 58 (39.2) | 35 (20.0) | 93 (28.8) | – |
| Injected any drugs (past 6 months)† | 81 (54.7) | 110 (63.2) | 191 (59.3) | – |
| Concurrent partners (past 6 months) | 2 (1.4) | 19 (10.8) | 21 (6.5) | – |
| FSW had regular clients (past month) | – | 131 (74.0) | – | – |
| FSW always used condoms with clients (past 6 months) | – | 67 (41.6) | – | – |
| Male partner traded sex (past 6 months) | 9 (6.1) | – | – | – |
| Male partner had sex with a man (past 6 months) | 7 (4.7) | – | – | – |
| Cumulative HIV/STI test results‡ | ||||
| HIV positive | 3 (2.0) | 10 (5.5) | 13 (3.9) | – |
| Syphilis positive | 5 (3.4) | 10 (5.8) | 15 (4.7) | – |
| Chlamydia positive | 9 (5.9) | 29 (16.3) | 38 (11.5) | – |
| Gonorrhoea positive | 1 (0.7) | 5 (2.8) | 6 (1.8) | – |
| Cumulative HIV/STI test result disclosure§ | ||||
| Disclosed all STI/HIV test results | 143 (93.5) | 147 (82.1) | 290 (87.4) | – |
| Disclosed all HIV test results | 147 (96.1) | 154 (87.5) | 301 (91.5) | – |
| Disclosed all STI test results (excluding HIV) | 133 (93.7) | 146 (83.9) | 279 (88.3) | – |
| Partnership-level | ||||
| Cohabitation | – | – | – | 182 (99.5) |
| Mean partnership duration in years (SD) | – | – | – | 5.0 (4.2) |
| Receives financial support from partner | 131 (86.8) | 143 (80.8) | 274 (83.5) | – |
| Mean trust of partner (10-point scale)¶ (SD) | 8.4 (1.7) | 8.2 (1.7) | 8.3 (1.7) | – |
| Mean partnership satisfaction (20-point scale)** (SD) | 14.5 (1.5) | 13.6 (2.4) | 14.0 (2.1) | – |
| Victim of conflict within partnership†† | 132 (86.3) | 134 (75.3) | 266 (80.4) | – |
| Perpetrator of conflict within partnership†† | 130 (85.0) | 145 (81.5) | 275 (83.1) | – |
| Any needle/syringe sharing with partner (past 6 months) | – | – | – | 34 (18.5) |
| Alcohol use before/during sex with partner (past 6 months) | – | – | – | 19 (10.4) |
| Drug use before/during sex with partner (past 6 months) | – | – | – | 73 (42.7) |
| Injection drug use only‡‡ | – | – | – | 29 (39.7) |
| Non-injection drug use only§§ | – | – | – | 29 (39.7) |
| Both injection and non-injection drug use¶¶ | – | – | – | 15 (20.5) |
| Sexual behaviour within partnership (past month) | ||||
| Mean # of vaginal sex acts (SD) | – | – | – | 9.7 (6.2) |
| Mean # of anal sex acts (SD) | – | – | – | 1.0 (2.9) |
| Never used condoms during vaginal sex | – | – | – | 159 (89.3) |
Numbers may not sum to column totals due to missing values; Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
*All individual-level and partnership-level characteristics were measured at visit 2, except STI/HIV test results and STI/HIV test result disclosure (both cumulative).
†Drugs include: heroin, crack, cocaine and methamphetamine.
‡STI/HIV tests performed at visits 2, 3 and 4.
§STI/HIV test result disclosure measured at visits 3, 4 and 5.
¶Higher scores indicate greater trust.
**5-item Satisfaction with Married Life scale (higher scores indicate greater satisfaction).
††Conflict=psychological aggression, physical assault, injury or sexual coercion based on 8 items of the Revised Conflict Tactics scale—Short Form (CTS2S).
‡‡100% injected heroin alone; 14% injected methamphetamine alone; 3% injected heroin and methamphetamine together.
§§69% smoked methamphetamine; 14% smoked crack; 10% inhaled cocaine; 3% smoked heroin.
¶¶100% injected heroin; 93% smoked methamphetamine; 20% swallowed tranquilisers; 7% used inhalants.
FSW, female sex worker; STI, sexually transmitted infection.