Assessment of the scale, coverage and outcomes of the Avahan HIV prevention program for female sex workers in Tamil Nadu, India: is there evidence of an effect?

Table 2 Socio-demographic and sex work characteristics of female sex workers in Tamil Nadu in Rounds 1 and 2 of IBBA

Characteristics	Groups	RI (%) N=2032	RII (%) N=2006	P Value (Wald Chi-square)
Current age (years)	<25	13.6	9.9	0.033
	25-29	22.0	19.1
	30-34	22.3	20.8
	35-39	25.8	27.6
	40+	16.3	22.6
Mean		32.3	33.8
Literacy	Illiterate	57.7	41.8	<0.001
	Literate	42.3	58.2
Marital status	Unmarried	3.2	13.1	<0.001
	Married	72.5	57.5
	Divorced/ separated / widowed	24.3	29.4
Additional income	None	41.8	22.5	<0.001
	Yes	58.2	77.5
Locality status	Yes	90.2	91.6	0.488
	No	9.8	8.5
Sex work in city <2 years	Yes	19.8	10.9	<0.001
	No	80.1	89.1
Age at first sex	< 15	12.7	10.2	0.064
	15+	87.1	89.8
Mean		17.8	17.8
Age when started sex work	<20	9.5	6.8	0.242
	20-24	25.1	24.2
	25-29	29.2	28.6
	30+	36.3	40.4
Duration in sex work	0-1	17.3	11.5	0.005
	2 to 4	42.3	38.5
	4 to 9	22.3	26.7
	10+	18.0	23.2
Usual place of solicitation/ Typology of sex work*	Non-street based	8.7	4.5	0.049
	Street	91.3	95.5
Usual place of entertainment	Home	66.2	71.6	0.235
	Brothel/ lodge	20.8	17.9
	Street	13.0	10.5
Clients per week	0 to 4	36.0	34.9	0.112
	5 to 9	44.5	49.7
	10+	19.5	15.6
Mean volume of clients		6.5	5.8
Regular partner	Yes	76.8	75.9	0.769
	No	23.3	24.1

*Refers to the type of sex work practiced by FSWs; non-street based sex work refers to FSWs who solicit clients in fixed venues, such as homes, brothels or lodges; whereas the street based sex work is when FSWs solicit their clients from public places such as bus stands, shops, markets, parks etc.

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