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Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya

BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) in Kenya are at an increased risk of violence, poverty, police arrest, and problematic alcohol and other substance use, all of which are linked to poor mental health and suicidal ideation. Despite the psychological stressors experienced by FSWs, there is no publ...

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Autores principales: Panneh, Mamtuti, Gafos, Mitzy, Nyariki, Emily, Liku, Jennifer, Shah, Pooja, Wanjiru, Rhoda, Wanjiru, Mary, Beksinska, Alicja, Pollock, James, Jama, Zaina, Babu, Hellen, Kaul, Rupert, Seeley, Janet, Bradley, John, Kimani, Joshua, Beattie, Tara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9685887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36418973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14527-5
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author Panneh, Mamtuti
Gafos, Mitzy
Nyariki, Emily
Liku, Jennifer
Shah, Pooja
Wanjiru, Rhoda
Wanjiru, Mary
Beksinska, Alicja
Pollock, James
Jama, Zaina
Babu, Hellen
Kaul, Rupert
Seeley, Janet
Bradley, John
Kimani, Joshua
Beattie, Tara
author_facet Panneh, Mamtuti
Gafos, Mitzy
Nyariki, Emily
Liku, Jennifer
Shah, Pooja
Wanjiru, Rhoda
Wanjiru, Mary
Beksinska, Alicja
Pollock, James
Jama, Zaina
Babu, Hellen
Kaul, Rupert
Seeley, Janet
Bradley, John
Kimani, Joshua
Beattie, Tara
author_sort Panneh, Mamtuti
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) in Kenya are at an increased risk of violence, poverty, police arrest, and problematic alcohol and other substance use, all of which are linked to poor mental health and suicidal ideation. Despite the psychological stressors experienced by FSWs, there is no published qualitative methods research investigating their mental health experiences in Kenya. In this paper, we draw on data from in-depth interviews to examine FSWs’ lifetime mental health experiences and perceived risk factors. METHODS: We used baseline in-depth interviews of the Maisha Fiti longitudinal study of FSWs in Nairobi. We randomly selected 40 FSWs from 1003 FSWs who attended a baseline behavioural-biological interview as part of the Maisha Fiti study. The interview guide was semi-structured, and participants were asked to detail their life stories, including narrating specific events such as entry into sex work, experiences of violence, mental health experiences, and use of alcohol and other substances. Interviews were recorded in Kiswahili/ English and transcribed in English. Data were coded and thematically analysed in Nvivo (v.12). RESULTS: Results indicated that the majority of participants understood ‘mental health’ as ‘insanity’, ‘stress’, ‘depression’, and ‘suicide’; nevertheless, a number described mental health symptomatically, while a few believed that mental health problems were caused by witchcraft. Interestingly, poverty, low levels of education, poor job opportunities, a lack of family support, harmful gender norms, intimate partner violence and subsequent relationship breakdowns, and family bereavement all contributed to poor mental health and subsequent entry into sex work. In addition, the consequences of sex work such as sexual risks, and ongoing violence from police and clients, further exacerbated poor mental health. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for both micro- and macro interventions to address poverty and violence against FSWs in Kenya, thereby reducing mental health problems. Addressing violence against women and girls may also reduce entry into sex work. Improving mental health literacy and providing mental health intervention services for ‘at-risk’ populations such as FSWs should enhance coping strategies and help-seeking efficacy.
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spelling pubmed-96858872022-11-25 Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya Panneh, Mamtuti Gafos, Mitzy Nyariki, Emily Liku, Jennifer Shah, Pooja Wanjiru, Rhoda Wanjiru, Mary Beksinska, Alicja Pollock, James Jama, Zaina Babu, Hellen Kaul, Rupert Seeley, Janet Bradley, John Kimani, Joshua Beattie, Tara BMC Public Health Research BACKGROUND: Female sex workers (FSWs) in Kenya are at an increased risk of violence, poverty, police arrest, and problematic alcohol and other substance use, all of which are linked to poor mental health and suicidal ideation. Despite the psychological stressors experienced by FSWs, there is no published qualitative methods research investigating their mental health experiences in Kenya. In this paper, we draw on data from in-depth interviews to examine FSWs’ lifetime mental health experiences and perceived risk factors. METHODS: We used baseline in-depth interviews of the Maisha Fiti longitudinal study of FSWs in Nairobi. We randomly selected 40 FSWs from 1003 FSWs who attended a baseline behavioural-biological interview as part of the Maisha Fiti study. The interview guide was semi-structured, and participants were asked to detail their life stories, including narrating specific events such as entry into sex work, experiences of violence, mental health experiences, and use of alcohol and other substances. Interviews were recorded in Kiswahili/ English and transcribed in English. Data were coded and thematically analysed in Nvivo (v.12). RESULTS: Results indicated that the majority of participants understood ‘mental health’ as ‘insanity’, ‘stress’, ‘depression’, and ‘suicide’; nevertheless, a number described mental health symptomatically, while a few believed that mental health problems were caused by witchcraft. Interestingly, poverty, low levels of education, poor job opportunities, a lack of family support, harmful gender norms, intimate partner violence and subsequent relationship breakdowns, and family bereavement all contributed to poor mental health and subsequent entry into sex work. In addition, the consequences of sex work such as sexual risks, and ongoing violence from police and clients, further exacerbated poor mental health. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for both micro- and macro interventions to address poverty and violence against FSWs in Kenya, thereby reducing mental health problems. Addressing violence against women and girls may also reduce entry into sex work. Improving mental health literacy and providing mental health intervention services for ‘at-risk’ populations such as FSWs should enhance coping strategies and help-seeking efficacy. BioMed Central 2022-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC9685887/ /pubmed/36418973 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14527-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Panneh, Mamtuti
Gafos, Mitzy
Nyariki, Emily
Liku, Jennifer
Shah, Pooja
Wanjiru, Rhoda
Wanjiru, Mary
Beksinska, Alicja
Pollock, James
Jama, Zaina
Babu, Hellen
Kaul, Rupert
Seeley, Janet
Bradley, John
Kimani, Joshua
Beattie, Tara
Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya
title Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya
title_full Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya
title_fullStr Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya
title_full_unstemmed Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya
title_short Mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex Workers in Nairobi, Kenya
title_sort mental health challenges and perceived risks among female sex workers in nairobi, kenya
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9685887/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36418973
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14527-5
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