Chowdhury D, Saravanamurthy PS, Chakrabartty A, Purohit S, Iyer SS, Agarwal A, Gopal KM, Mishra P. Vulnerabilities and risks of HIV infection among migrants in the Thane district, India.
Public Health 2018;
164:49-56. [PMID:
30189388 DOI:
10.1016/j.puhe.2018.07.019]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2017] [Revised: 07/06/2018] [Accepted: 07/16/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
To explore the vulnerabilities and risks of HIV infection among female migrants compared with male migrants in the Thane district of Maharashtra, India.
STUDY DESIGN
This is a cross-sectional epidemiological study.
METHODS
Data from 35,841 migrants (men 96.2% and women 3.8%) were collected using the web-based 'Migrant Service Delivery System.' The data were then analysed in SPSS, version 23.0. Statistical analysis, including Chi-squared test and multivariate logistic regression, was used to identify factors influencing HIV infection for both male and female migrants.
RESULTS
It was observed that 2.96% of female migrants had HIV infection compared with 0.77% of male migrants. We found that 12.1% of women consumed alcohol compared with 41.9% of men, and access to bars was 1.5% among women and 3.5% in men. We observed an even larger difference between men and women in their previous history of using brothels for sex; only 5.9% of female migrants reported previously having used brothels for sex, compared with 62.9% of male migrants. Approximately 12.3% of married women and 93.6% of married men had sex with someone other than their spouse. We found that 67.0% of married women and 73.9% of married men reported using a condom during their last sexual act compared with 60.9% of unmarried women and 68.1% of unmarried men.
CONCLUSIONS
In Thane, female migrants faced higher vulnerabilities and risks of HIV infection than male migrants. Consequently, innovative strategies are required to address these particular needs of female migrants.
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