Mobility and sex work: why, where, when? A typology of female-sex-worker mobility in Zimbabwe.
Davey, Calum;
Dirawo, Jeffrey;
Mushati, Phillis;
Magutshwa, Sitholubuhle;
Hargreaves, James R;
Cowan, Frances M;
(2018)
Mobility and sex work: why, where, when? A typology of female-sex-worker mobility in Zimbabwe.
Social science & medicine (1982), 220.
pp. 322-330.
ISSN 0277-9536
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.11.027
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Sex-worker mobility may have implications for health and access to care but has not been described in sub-Saharan Africa. We described sex-worker mobility in Zimbabwe and a mobility typology using data from 2591 and 2839 female sex workers in 14 sites from 2013 and 2016. We used latent class analysis to identify a typology of mobile sex workers. More women travelled for work in 2016 (59%) than in 2013 (27%), usually to find clients with more money (57% of the journeys), spending a median of 21 (2013) and 24 (2016) days away. A five-class mixture model best fitted the data, with 39% women in an infrequent work-mobility class, 21% in a domestic-high-mobility class, 16% in an international-high-mobility class, 16% in an infrequent opportunistic-non-work-mobility class, and 7% who travel with clients. More-mobile classes were better educated; risk behaviours differed by class. Mobility is increasing among sex worker in Zimbabwe, multi-faceted, and not explained by other vulnerabilities.