Table 1.
Socio-demographic and sexual behavioural characteristics of young FSW by age, 2013 (N = 656) and 2016 (N = 503) (RDS-II weighted)
| 2013 (N = 656) | 2016 (N = 503) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18–19 years | 20–24 years | 18–19 years | 20–24 years | |||||
| N = 109 | N = 547 | N = 51 | N = 452 | |||||
| n | (%) | n | (%) | N | (%) | n | (%) | |
| Marital status | ||||||||
| Married/ living together as if married | 0 | 0.0 | 3 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.8 | 3 | 1.6 |
| Divorced/ separated | 45 | 37.5 | 343 | 64.9 | 19 | 49.5 | 294 | 66.4 |
| Widowed | 0 | 0.0 | 19 | 2.8 | 1 | 0.8 | 8 | 1.0 |
| Never been married | 64 | 62.6 | 182 | 31.7 | 30 | 49.0 | 147 | 31.0 |
| Highest level of education | ||||||||
| None | 1 | 1.4 | 8 | 1.9 | 0 | 0.0 | 6 | 2.1 |
| Primary level | 38 | 34.8 | 106 | 21.3 | 13 | 30.4 | 87 | 22.1 |
| Some secondary | 52 | 49.0 | 229 | 44.3 | 28 | 55.8 | 178 | 39.2 |
| Complete secondary or higher | 17 | 14.8 | 203 | 32.5 | 10 | 13.9 | 181 | 36.6 |
| Tribe | ||||||||
| Shona | 85 | 68.3 | 427 | 74.0 | 41 | 81.3 | 334 | 71.9 |
| Ndebele | 18 | 24.3 | 47 | 11.4 | 7 | 10.5 | 48 | 11.2 |
| Kalanga | 0 | 0.0 | 11 | 1.4 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.1 |
| Other | 6 | 7.4 | 62 | 13.3 | 3 | 8.1 | 68 | 16.8 |
| Religion | ||||||||
| Christian | 56 | 57.2 | 267 | 49.0 | 32 | 62.1 | 263 | 53.2 |
| Muslim | 0 | 0.0 | 2 | 0.4 | 1 | 0.8 | 3 | 1.1 |
| African traditional | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.2 |
| Other | 11 | 14.6 | 35 | 6.2 | 8 | 10.5 | 54 | 13.8 |
| No religion | 42 | 28.1 | 241 | 44.1 | 10 | 26.6 | 131 | 31.7 |
| Number of children | ||||||||
| 0 | 46 | 46.4 | 152 | 30.6 | 23 | 43.2 | 119 | 30.3 |
| 1–2 | 52 | 47.4 | 329 | 59.3 | 26 | 54.4 | 268 | 54.9 |
| 3 + | 11 | 6.2 | 66 | 10.2 | 2 | 2.4 | 65 | 14.8 |
| No food for one day in the past month | ||||||||
| No | 70 | 63.0 | 325 | 60.0 | 36 | 67.4 | 308 | 67.7 |
| Yes | 39 | 37.0 | 222 | 40.0 | 15 | 32.6 | 143 | 32.3 |
| Age at start of sex work | ||||||||
| ≤ 15 | 19 | 16.2 | 26 | 5.6 | 9 | 18.6 | 21 | 5.9 |
| 16–17 | 56 | 51.8 | 63 | 9.6 | 32 | 69.7 | 68 | 12.6 |
| 18–24 | 34 | 32.0 | 458 | 84.7 | 10 | 11.7 | 362 | 81.5 |
| Duration in sex work (years) | ||||||||
| 0–2 | 82 | 79.7 | 300 | 60.5 | 36 | 71.4 | 204 | 46.7 |
| 3–4 | 22 | 15.6 | 165 | 26.0 | 14 | 28.2 | 161 | 34.5 |
| ≥ 5 | 5 | 4.7 | 82 | 13.5 | 1 | 0.4 | 86 | 18.8 |
| Number of clients in the last week | ||||||||
| 0–4 | 47 | 55.8 | 225 | 46.4 | 21 | 42.7 | 181 | 41.4 |
| 5–9 | 24 | 17.7 | 141 | 26.8 | 16 | 22.6 | 136 | 29.2 |
| ≥ 10 | 38 | 26.5 | 181 | 26.9 | 14 | 34.7 | 134 | 29.5 |
| Relationship with other female sex-workers in one’s location | ||||||||
| Good | 63 | 56.8 | 323 | 62.1 | 36 | 59.4 | 295 | 63.1 |
| Neither good nor bad | 31 | 28.6 | 174 | 28.7 | 12 | 31.8 | 132 | 33.0 |
| Bad | 8 | 6.5 | 32 | 5.8 | 1 | 0.3 | 15 | 2.2 |
| No relationship | 7 | 8.1 | 18 | 3.3 | 2 | 8.5 | 9 | 1.7 |
| No. of female sex-workers who are close friends | ||||||||
| ≤ 1 | 30 | 20.6 | 156 | 26.6 | 19 | 34.2 | 169 | 35.2 |
| 2–3 | 58 | 61.6 | 291 | 55.9 | 24 | 57.2 | 188 | 44.6 |
| ≥ 4 | 21 | 17.8 | 100 | 17.5 | 8 | 8.6 | 94 | 20.2 |
| Alcohol consumption in the past 12 months | ||||||||
| Never | 42 | 47.4 | 184 | 36.1 | 19 | 30.7 | 131 | 31.4 |
| Once a month or less | 8 | 5.9 | 59 | 12.5 | 3 | 7.4 | 35 | 6.4 |
| 2–4 times per month | 14 | 9.2 | 77 | 13.7 | 4 | 2.3 | 51 | 11.8 |
| 2–3 times per week | 23 | 20.4 | 79 | 13.1 | 13 | 27.1 | 116 | 27.2 |
| 4 or more times per week | 22 | 16.9 | 148 | 24.6 | 12 | 32.4 | 118 | 23.2 |
| Symptoms of common mental disorder | ||||||||
| No | 58 | 53.3 | 268 | 51.4 | 41 | 84.8 | 311 | 68.2 |
| Yes | 51 | 46.7 | 276 | 48.6 | 10 | 15.2 | 138 | 31.8 |
| Experience of physical violence from steady partner | ||||||||
| No | 63 | 62.7 | 305 | 59.5 | 27 | 50.4 | 242 | 58.3 |
| Yes | 46 | 37.3 | 242 | 40.5 | 24 | 49.6 | 209 | 41.7 |
| Experience of physical violence from client | ||||||||
| No | 82 | 77.1 | 397 | 76.2 | 29 | 52.6 | 327 | 75.9 |
| Yes | 27 | 22.9 | 150 | 23.8 | 22 | 47.4 | 124 | 24.1 |
| Ever forced to have sexual intercourse | ||||||||
| No | 100 | 90.4 | 528 | 96.4 | 46 | 90.7 | 412 | 89.9 |
| Yes | 9 | 9.6 | 19 | 3.6 | 5 | 9.3 | 39 | 10.1 |
| Self-reported HIV status | ||||||||
| Negative | 80 | 85.0 | 403 | 82.8 | 43 | 86.8 | 354 | 74.7 |
| Positive | 12 | 15.0 | 100 | 17.2 | 5 | 13.2 | 88 | 25.3 |
| Rapid HIV test result | ||||||||
| Negative | 80 | 73.3 | 339 | 63.0 | 39 | 79.3 | 290 | 62.0 |
| Positive | 28 | 26.7 | 208 | 37.0 | 12 | 20.7 | 161 | 38.0 |
| Knowledge of HIV positive statusa | ||||||||
| No | 18 | 55.4 | 116 | 61.0 | 9 | 45.7 | 77 | 38.1 |
| Yes | 10 | 44.6 | 92 | 39.0 | 3 | 54.3 | 84 | 61.9 |
aProportion reported HIV positive among those who tested HIV positive during the survey