GENDER-SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS FOR WOMEN AND THEIR MALE PARTNERS

Grant Title: HIV Risk Among Migrant Entertainment Industry Workers in Eastern China

Funding Source and Period: HIV Center Pilot Studies Program; 2006-2007

Key HIV Center Personnel:
Investigator: Joanne Mantell, Ph.D.

Project Overview
(from abstract of research plan)

HIV/AIDS is a considerable public health concern in China, with the disease now moving from core high-risk populations to the general population due to risky sexual behaviors. The shift toward a more tolerant sexual culture has been accompanied by an alarming increase in sexually transmitted infections after near eradication. Massive internal rural-urban migration has resulted in the re-emergence of commercial sex and a large male-centered sexual entertainment industry serviced by female migrants is burgeoning. Some research indicates inconsistent condom use and a low level of HIV knowledge among this population. Relatively few preventive interventions have been targeted to this population.

The proposed study seeks to determine the HIV risk behaviors and prevention needs of this population, which is critical for designing appropriate prevention messages and interventions, in one large entertainment center in Eastern China. Specific study aims are to (1) identify the HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and risk and prevention behaviors of employees (both those providing and not providing entertainment services in a large entertainment establishment; (2) characterize the individual and institutional barriers and facilitators to promotion of condom use; and (3) describe the social, cultural, and gendered contexts of migrant life and the entertainment industry that contribute to the HIV sexual and reproductive risk and prevention behaviors of entertainment workers. This will be accomplished through the administration of 800 surveys of entertainment center workers and an interview with the center's manager.

Updated: 5/16/07