Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October Learn More or Try it out now. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors with the permission of the Guinea-Bissau Ministry of Public Health. Objective: To assess the prevalence and predictors of underage initiation of selling sex among female sex workers FSW in Guinea-Bissau.
Methods: adult FSW recruited using respondent-driven sampling were surveyed in Results: A total of Underage initiation of selling sex was associated with experiencing forced sex before age 18 adjusted odds ratio aOR : 6. Despite having lower odds of wanting to have children or more children aOR: 0. Among those who were ever pregnant, a lower percentage of FSW who started selling sex while underage accessed antenatal care Social services for youth and integrated HIV and reproductive health services are critical to address the persisting sexual and reproductive health needs of FSW who started selling sex while underage.
The third Sustainable Development Goal on good health and well-being includes targets to end the AIDS epidemic and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services including family planning, information and education by The fifth Sustainable Development Goal on gender equality also includes a target to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.
Identifying and addressing the needs of vulnerable populations are important components of achieving these targets [ 1 ]. Globally, selling sex under the age of 18 is prevalent and confers immediate and long-term vulnerabilities to adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes [ 2 ]. Much of the research on underage entry into selling sex has been conducted in Asia [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ], Eastern Europe [ 8 , 9 ], and the Americas [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].
A growing body of studies in Africa have included underage participants who sell sex [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] or reported the prevalence and predictors of underage entry into selling sex among adult female sex workers FSW [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Research on this topic is particularly important in Africa due to the disproportionate burden of poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes among adolescents in the region [ 29 , 30 ].
