scholarly journals Childhood conditions, pathways to entertainment work and current practices of female entertainment workers in Cambodia: Baseline findings from the Mobile Link trial

PLoS ONE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. e0216578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carinne Brody ◽  
Pheak Chhoun ◽  
Sovannary Tuot ◽  
Dallas Swendeman ◽  
Siyan Yi
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Conditions ◽  
Female Entertainment Workers ◽  
Mobile Link ◽  
Current Practices

scholarly journals Childhood conditions, pathways to entertainment work and current practices of female entertainment workers in Cambodia: Baseline findings from the Mobile Link trial

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carinne Brody ◽  
Pheak Chhoun ◽  
Sovannary Tuot ◽  
Dallas Swendeman ◽  
Siyan Yi
Keyword(s):  
Baseline Survey ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Running Water ◽  
Modern Contraception ◽  
The Past ◽  
Childhood Conditions ◽  
Contraception Use ◽  
Female Entertainment Workers ◽  
Mobile Link ◽  
Current Practices

AbstractBackgroundEntertainment venues have been identified as an important location for HIV prevention due to the increasing number of young female entertainment and sex workers at these venues. The purpose of this report is to increase understanding of the childhood conditions, pathways to entertainment work and current practices of female entertainment workers (FEWs) in Cambodia.MethodsData used for this study were collected in April 2018 as part of the baseline survey of the Mobile Link, a randomized controlled trial to improve sexual and reproductive health of FEWs in Cambodia. We used a stratified random sampling method to recruit 600 FEWs for face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were performed.ResultsMost participants came from childhood homes without electricity (82.0%) or running water (87.0%). Most women moved to the city in the last ten years (80.5%) for economic reasons (43.7%). About a third worked in the garment industry prior to the entertainment industry (36.7%). Participation in transactional sex in the past three months was reported by 36.0%. Women reported low condom use practices with non-paying partners (23.4% used condom with partner at last sex), excessive and forced alcohol use at work (33.1% reported being forced to drink alcohol at work more than once a month), low modern contraception use (31.4% was using modern contraception), and experiences of gender-based violence (23.3% reported verbal threats, physical abuse or forced sex in the past six months).ConclusionsThis information will help to support the development of future individual and structural level interventions for the safety and support of FEWs. In addition, these results may contribute to an evidence base that can inform policy level changes intended to support the realization of full human rights for entertainment works in Cambodia including the rights to health, safety, and respectful employment.

scholarly journals Correction to: Mobile Link – a theory-based messaging intervention for improving sexual and reproductive health of female entertainment workers in Cambodia: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Trials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carinne Brody ◽  
Sovannary Tuot ◽  
Pheak Chhoun ◽  
Dallas Swendeman ◽  
Kathryn C. Kaplan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Study Protocol ◽  
Sexual And Reproductive Health ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Female Entertainment Workers ◽  
Mobile Link

After publication of our article [1] we became aware that several sections of text in our Methods section were copied from a previously published article [2]. We would like to formally apologize and give credit to the authors of that article [2]: Chris Smith, Uk Vannak, Ly Sokhey, Thoai D Ngo, Judy Gold, Khemrin Khut, Phil Edwards, Tung Rathavy and Caroline Free.

scholarly journals Using participatory methods to build an mHealth intervention for female entertainment workers in Cambodia: the development of the Mobile Link project

mHealth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 24-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pheak Chhoun ◽  
Kathryn C. Kaplan ◽  
Carlijn Wieten ◽  
Ida Jelveh ◽  
Mitchell Lienemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Participatory Methods ◽  
Mhealth Intervention ◽  
Female Entertainment Workers ◽  
Mobile Link

scholarly journals Improving Access to Health and Gender-based Violence Services for Female Entertainment Workers in Cambodia: Findings From the Mobile Link Randomized Controlled Trial

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carinne Brody ◽  
Pheak Chhoun ◽  
Sovannary Tuot ◽  
Anne E. Fehrenbacher ◽  
Alexander Moran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Outreach Workers ◽  
Female Entertainment Workers ◽  
Secondary Outcomes ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Mobile Link

Abstract Background: Female entertainment workers (FEWs) in Cambodia experience a greater prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), psychological distress, substance use, and gender-based violence (GBV) than the general population. Reaching FEWs with health education and linking them to services has been difficult because of their hidden and stigmatized status. This study evaluates the Mobile Link intervention, aiming to improve FEWs’ health by connecting them to existing HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and GBV services using short message services and voice messages.Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted between March 2018 and June 2019. We employed a stratified random sampling method to select participants from five study sites. Initially, we randomly selected 600 participants from a list of 4000 FEWs by age group and study site and randomized them to intervention or standard care control arms. The primary outcome measures included self-reported HIV and STI testing, condom use, and contraceptive use. We also measured secondary outcomes, including contact with outreach workers, escorted referral services use, forced drinking, and GBV experiences. Intervention effects were modeled using repeated measures, multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression.Results: We included 218 FEWs in intervention and 170 FEWs in control arms in the per-protocol analyses after removing dropouts. Evidence of positive intervention effects was detected for the following secondary outcomes: contacting an outreach worker (group by time 2 AOR 3.29, 95% CI 1.28–8.47), receiving an escorted referral (group by time 2 AOR 2.86, 95% CI 1.09–7.52; group by time 3 AOR 8.15, 95% CI 1.65–40.25), and never being forced to drink at work (group by time 3 AOR 3.95, 95% CI 1.62–9.60). No significant differences between intervention and control groups over time were observed for any primary outcomes in the fully adjusted models.Conclusions: The Mobile Link intervention effectively connected FEWs with outreach workers and escorted referrals. Reductions in forced drinking at work were also significantly more extensive in the intervention group than the control group. Longer-term messaging may increase access to services and impact FEWs’ health outcomes in the future.Trial registration: Clinical trials.gov, NCT03117842 . Registered 31 March 2017, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03117842?term=NCT03117842&rank=1

A Mobile Intervention to link Female Entertainment Workers in Cambodia to Health and Gender-based Violence Services: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carinne Brody ◽  
Pheak Chhoun ◽  
Sovannary Tuot ◽  
Anne E. Fehrenbacher ◽  
Alexander Moran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Outreach Workers ◽  
Female Entertainment Workers ◽  
Secondary Outcomes ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Mobile Link

BACKGROUND Female entertainment workers (FEWs) in Cambodia experience a greater prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), psychological distress, substance use, and gender-based violence (GBV) than the general population. Reaching FEWs with health education and linking them to services has been difficult because of their hidden and stigmatized status. OBJECTIVE This study evaluates the Mobile Link intervention, aiming to improve FEWs’ health by connecting them to health services using automated twice-weekly short message services and voice messages with health information and direct links to outreach workers. METHODS The randomized controlled trial was conducted between March 2018 and June 2019. We employed a stratified random sampling method to select participants from five study sites. Initially, we randomly selected 600 participants from a list of 4000 FEWs by age group and study site using a random number generator and enrolled them in person. The primary outcome measures included self-reported HIV and STI testing, condom use, and contraceptive use, which we assessed through face-to-face structured interviews. We also measured secondary outcomes, including contact with outreach workers, escorted referral services use, forced drinking, and GBV experiences. Intervention effects were modeled using repeated measures, multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression. RESULTS We included 218 FEWs in intervention and 170 FEWs in control arms in the per-protocol analyses after 212 removing dropouts. Evidence of positive intervention effects was detected for the following secondary outcomes: contacting an outreach worker (group by time 2 AOR 3.29, 95% CI 1.28–8.47), receiving an escorted referral (group by time 2 AOR 2.86, 95% CI 1.09–7.52; group by time 3 AOR 8.15, 95% CI 1.65–40.25), and never being forced to drink at work (group by time 3 AOR 3.95, 95% CI 1.62–9.60). No significant differences between intervention and control groups over time were observed for any primary outcomes in the fully adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS The Mobile Link intervention did not show an effect on the primary outcomes but effectively connected FEWs with outreach workers and escorted referrals. Reductions in forced drinking at work were also significantly more extensive in the intervention group than the control group. Longer-term messaging may increase access to services and impact FEWs’ health outcomes in the future. CLINICALTRIAL Clinical trials.gov, NCT03117842 . Registered 31 March 2017, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03117842?term=NCT03117842&rank=1 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.1186/s13063-018-2614-7

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