TABLE 1.

Social–Environmental Measures: Encontros Cohort, Corumbá, Brazil, 2003–2005

		Properties
Factor	Scale Items	No. of Items	Raw Scores, Mean (Range)	Cronbach α
Social cohesion: perception of mutual aid, trust, connectedness, support among sex workers	Strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree:	13; summed and standardized (0, 1, 2, 3 points for ascending responses)b	20.2 (2–36)	0.81
	• You can count on your colleaguesa if you need to borrow money
	• You can count on your colleagues to accompany you to the doctor or hospital
	• You can count on your colleagues if you need to talk about your problems
	• In general, your colleagues in the area where you work only worry about themselves
	• You can count on your colleagues if you need advice
	• You can count on your colleagues if you need somewhere to stay
	• You can count on your colleagues to help deal with a violent or difficult client
	• You can count on your colleagues to help you find clients
	• You can count on your colleagues to support the use of condoms
	• The group of women/men with whom you work is an integrated group
	• In general, the people you work with are always arguing among each other
	• You can trust the majority of the people working in your area
	• In general, the people you work with get along well
Participation in networks: access to and participation in social and other community networks	Do you participate in:	7; summed and standardized scores (no = 0; yes = 1)	2.6 (0–7)	0.61
	• Church or other religious activities
	• Clubs (sports, student groups, parent groups)
	• Neighborhood associations
	• Cultural activities (art, dance, music, samba school)
	• Community center activities
	• Activist organizations/groups
	• Volunteer/help projects
	• Other activities
Access to and management of material and social resources, including goods and services	Do you have a checking account at any bank?	10: summed and standardized scores (no = 0; yes = 1)	3.6 (0–10)	0.61
	Do you have a savings account?
	Have you purchased/paid for health insurance in the last 3 months?
	Have you purchased the following in the last 3 months:
	• Furniture
	• Electrical appliances (radio, TV, blender, other)
	• Clothes
	• Cosmetics
	• CDs
	• Books
	• Cellular phone
	• Other

^aReference is sex worker peers.

^bTruncated lowest score value at 8 and highest at 30 owing to scarcity of observations at the lowest and highest ranges.