Sexwork in Trucking Milieux: ‘Lot Lizards,’ Truckers, and Risk.
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Yorghos Apostolopoulos, Associate Professor (Creator)
- Mona M. Shattell, Associate Professor (Creator)
- Sevil Sonmez, Professor and Department Head (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: Background: Long-haul truckers often engage in risk-laden sexual mixing and drug exchanges with female sex workers while on the road, which increase their vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections/blood borne infections (STI/BBI).
Objective: An ethnoepidemiological study of STI/BBI in trucker-centered populations was conducted at four truckstops in the United States. This article reports findings from an analysis of the female sex worker data, which show how mobility and transience, as well as poverty, homelessness, and exposure to violence, have the potential to exacerbate the occupational health risks of female sex workers.
Methods: Phase 1 involved nonparticipant observation of trucker risk network groups in public and semi-public settings at two Arizona truckstops. Phase 2 was a large-scale ethnoepidemiological study of STI/BBI risk among trucker networks at two Georgia truckstops. Ten sex workers in Phoenix and 29 in Atlanta were interviewed individually or in focus groups. Textual data were analyzed using QSR NVivo 8 and serological data collected from the Georgia sample were analyzed for STIs/HIV.
Results: Infections occur within these populations, where the existence of multiple risks delivered via multiple channels within physical proximity maintains infection and transmission.
Conclusions: Environmental-level interventions, such as better security at truck stops, and individual-level interventions, such as STI/BBI infection education and testing for FSWs and truckers, can contribute to safer settings for truckers, sex workers, and their sex and drug partners.
Sexwork in Trucking Milieux: ‘Lot Lizards,’ Truckers, and Risk.
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Created on 6/4/2013
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Language: English
- Date: 2013
- Keywords
- infection risk, sex workers, truckers, nursing, sexually transmitted infection