Behavioural Surveillance Surveys - The Wisdom of Whores

Section 5 : Non-regular partners
Q501: This is a filter question requiring
the interviewer to look back at 304 to determine
if the respondent reports non-regular partners
during the previous 12 months. If not,
this section is skipped. Recall that the term
“non-regular” is used to refer to any nonspousal
or non-live-in partner, but excluding
commercial partner’s who the respondent
has had sex in exchange for cash. “Nonregular”
would include casual partners and
“girlfriends”/“boyfriends” and any other sexual
partner(s) with whom money has not been
exchanged. In this questionnaire, we are
distinguishing between “commercial” and
“non-commercial” relationships. In-kind gifts
are not included as commercial exchanges.
Q502-Q505 : These questions are similar
to Q402-Q405 (see above).
Q506 : This question is similar to Q406
(see previous section).
Section 6 : Commercial sexual partners
Q601: Again, this is a filter question
requiring the interviewer to look back at
Q304. Both males and females are asked if
they have had sex with anyone in exchange
for money. The utility of the definition of
“commercial sexual partner” has to be
determined locally based on the research
team’s experience, qualitative research
conducted with the target group in question,
and the specific characteristics of the target
group. Although some might question
asking females about commercial partners,
it is possible that a particular target group
(say, for example, market women) may
contain members who are exchanging sex for
money, but who do not consider themselves
“female sex workers” and who would not be
interviewed using the FSW questionnaire.
Details about commercial sexual transactions
can thus be captured with this section without
using the FSW instrument.
Q602-Q605 : These questions are similar
to Q402-Q405 and Q502-505 (see above).
In 602, we are trying to get an idea of how
many times the same commercial partner may
be visited, which is why the question reads,
“How many times did you have sex with
your most recent commercial partner in the
last 30 days?”
Q606 : This question is similar to Q406
and Q506 (see above).
In sections 5 (non-regular) and 6 (commercial),
we did not ask if the respondent had discussed
HIV, AIDS, or STDs with any of these kinds of
partners. Part of the reason for this choice
had to do with the length of these questionnaires
and prioritizing inclusion of questions.
In addition, we felt that communication about
HIV and STD risk was least likely among
regular partners and therefore this might be
the most appropriate section in which to
include this question. Over time, increases
in this indicator between regular partners
(a larger proportion of the samples will report
regular partners) will suggest evolving social
norms about communicating risk and prevention.
B EHAV I OR A L S U R V EI L L A NC E SURV EY S APPEN DI X 2
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