Structure and agency in long-distance truck drivers' lived experiences of condom use for HIV prevention

Localocentricity, mental health and medical poverty in communication about sex work, HIV and AIDS among trans women engaged in sex work

Trans women engaged in sex work live at the intersections of discrimination against sex workers, women and transgender people. Dominant public health approaches have constructed trans women in sex work as a group at high risk of HIV infection. This study employed localocentricity, situated within a cultured-centred approach, as a theoretical framework to document health narratives among 29 trans women who had knowledge of or experience in sex work. This theoretical framing draws attention to the articulations between health and illness expressed by trans women in sex work in USA. Research participants emphasised how their health was affected by extreme socio-political-cultural marginalisation as well as medical poverty and mental health issues.

[Qualitative studies on truck drivers and HIV/AIDS: contributions for the analysis of vulnerability]

The scope of this article is to conduct a critical identification and analysis, based on the analytical framework of the concept of vulnerability of truck drivers to HIV. The criteria for inclusion were to address the issue of truck drivers' susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and to adopt the qualitative approach. A total of 445 abstracts were located, of which 17 articles were included in the analysis and categorized as "sociocultural studies", "evaluative studies" and "risk behavior studies." The analysis was based on reflections surrounding the concept of vulnerability in health. The study criticizes the predominance of qualitative studies of a behaviorist nature, with an emphasis on the identification of risk behaviors, concepts and representations about HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, it points to studies of a sociocultural and evaluative nature that transcend the barrier of individual behaviors, expanding the scope of analysis, analysis of structural phenomena and interactions of subjects faced with the epidemic, duly approaching the concept of vulnerability. The review reveals the need for studies that take into account the concept of vulnerability, contextualizing the behaviors to the socio-structural dimensions involved in the AIDS epidemic.