Prevalence of HIV/STIs and Correlates with Municipal Characteristics among Female Sex Workers in 13 Mexican cities

Abstract

The present study used a social ecological framework to explore the prevalence of HIV and other STIs and their correlates among 1,092 FSWs in 13 sites across Mexico. The Social Ecological Model describes five levels of influence on behavior, including individual (e.g., education), interpersonal (e.g., substance use with clients), institutional (e.g., work venue), community (e.g., poverty, access to health care), and policy (e.g., policing).6 Given recent emphasis in prevention research on the “risk environment”,7 which includes all levels of influence described in our conceptual model, we hypothesized that site-specific, community-level, municipal characteristics might explain variations in HIV/STI prevalence independent of individual-, interpersonal-, institutional, and policy-level factors. We also hypothesized that settings with fewer resources and less-educated populations would have FSWs who were riskier.