Table 1

Socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics of female sex workers (FSWs) in Liuzhou recruited by respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and Priorities for Local AIDS Control Efforts (PLACE)

RDS-IIPLACE
%%p Value
Total576161
Age0.002
 15–1911.416.9
 20–2431.434.7
 25–2920.229.1
 30–3419.57.8
 35–3910.75.4
 40+6.86.1
Residence<0.0001
 In the urban district with RDS office46.29.0
 In one of the three other urban districts51.341.2
 In one of the six Liuzhou counties2.549.7
Other socio-demographic characteristics
 Never married62.260.90.76
 Separated, divorced or widowed24.06.7<0.0001
 Less than a junior high education25.332.60.06
 Mean monthly income in renminbi48881994<0.0001
 Aged less than 15 at first sex2.17.3<0.001
 Ever arrested10.627.6<0.0001
 Drinks alcohol weekly or more36.627.90.04
 Ever injected drugs2.00.10.04
Sexual behaviour and previous testing
 More than 10 partners in past 4 weeks55.758.90.11
 Used condom at last sex71.581.50.01
Solicited past year in:
 Urban districts99.456.7<0.0001
 Liuzhou counties3.961.4<0.0001
 Outside Liuzhou12.231.1<0.0001
Type of venue where solicited in past 6 months
 Outdoors4.16.50.21
 Phone/internet31.65.7<0.0001
 Karaoke TV or karaoke22.423.40.7882
 Hair salon12.657.2<0.0001
 Massage33.940.8<0.0001
Has been tested for HIV and knows results28.946.5<0.0001
Was tested for syphilis in past year7.635.2<0.0001
  • The seven RDS seeds were excluded from RDS-II estimates. The 47 RDS FSWs who participated in the survey but refused the rapid syphilis test were included in this table. The 161 sex workers are a subset of the 680 workers recruited through PLACE.