Entertainment work, commercial sex, and HIV/STD in China: who are at risk and what are the risk factors?

Xiushi Yang, Old Dominion University
Guomei Xia, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Data from a prospective study conducted among 297 women working in 15 entertainment establishments in Shanghai in 2004 are used to examine individual and social risk factors of involvement in commercial sex and use of condom in such sexual transaction. Multilevel analysis technique is used to take into account of correlations between repeated measures and among women from the same establishment in model estimation. Results suggest that alcohol consumption is the most significant risk factor for commercial sex. Neither individual cognitive nor social influence factors have much influence over the women’s commercial sex. However, both are important for understanding condom use among the women. Models contain both individual cognitive and social influence factors perform significantly better than models contain either alone. After controlling for demographic characteristics and individual cognitive and social influence factors, there is some intra-establishment correlation in commercial sex (0.04) but no correlation among women from the same establishment.