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‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos

BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) are vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other types of health problems and they also encounter socio-economic difficulties. Efforts to develop effective health intervention programs for FSWs have been hampered by a lack of information on why...

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Autores principales: Phrasisombath, Ketkesone, Thomsen, Sarah, Sychareun, Vanphanom, Faxelid, Elisabeth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Co-Action Publishing 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3536938/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23336614
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v6i0.19080
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author Phrasisombath, Ketkesone
Thomsen, Sarah
Sychareun, Vanphanom
Faxelid, Elisabeth
author_facet Phrasisombath, Ketkesone
Thomsen, Sarah
Sychareun, Vanphanom
Faxelid, Elisabeth
author_sort Phrasisombath, Ketkesone
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) are vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other types of health problems and they also encounter socio-economic difficulties. Efforts to develop effective health intervention programs for FSWs have been hampered by a lack of information on why FSWs do not seek or delay seeking treatment for STIs. To further understand their reasons, our study applied a qualitative approach to explore perceptions of health and ill-health among FSWs in Savannakhet province in Laos. METHODS: Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with FSWs in Savannakhet province. Latent content analysis was used for analysis. RESULTS: Sex workers’ definitions of health and wealth are intertwined. Thus, good health was described as strongly related to wealth, and wealth was needed in order to be healthy. This is explained in two sub-themes: health is necessary for work and income and ill-health creates social and economic vulnerability. CONCLUSIONS: Female sex workers’ beliefs and perceptions about health and ill-health were dominated by their economic need, which in turn was influenced by expectations and demands from their families.
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spelling pubmed-35369382013-01-04 ‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos Phrasisombath, Ketkesone Thomsen, Sarah Sychareun, Vanphanom Faxelid, Elisabeth Glob Health Action Original Article BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) are vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and other types of health problems and they also encounter socio-economic difficulties. Efforts to develop effective health intervention programs for FSWs have been hampered by a lack of information on why FSWs do not seek or delay seeking treatment for STIs. To further understand their reasons, our study applied a qualitative approach to explore perceptions of health and ill-health among FSWs in Savannakhet province in Laos. METHODS: Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with FSWs in Savannakhet province. Latent content analysis was used for analysis. RESULTS: Sex workers’ definitions of health and wealth are intertwined. Thus, good health was described as strongly related to wealth, and wealth was needed in order to be healthy. This is explained in two sub-themes: health is necessary for work and income and ill-health creates social and economic vulnerability. CONCLUSIONS: Female sex workers’ beliefs and perceptions about health and ill-health were dominated by their economic need, which in turn was influenced by expectations and demands from their families. Co-Action Publishing 2013-01-02 /pmc/articles/PMC3536938/ /pubmed/23336614 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v6i0.19080 Text en © 2013 Ketkesone Phrasisombath et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Phrasisombath, Ketkesone
Thomsen, Sarah
Sychareun, Vanphanom
Faxelid, Elisabeth
‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos
title ‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos
title_full ‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos
title_fullStr ‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos
title_full_unstemmed ‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos
title_short ‘Health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in Savannakhet, Laos
title_sort ‘health is wealth and wealth is health’ – perceptions of health and ill-health among female sex workers in savannakhet, laos
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3536938/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23336614
http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v6i0.19080
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