Service venues were smaller than entertainment venues, employed fewer workers, had fewer patrons, and were more often located within a geographic cluster of similar venues. Almost all of the service venues reported having rooms with a bed. Activities enjoyed by groups of friends and peers, such as socializing for an hour or more, alcohol consumption, and singing karaoke were more likely to occur at entertainment venues.
Entertainment venues were also more likely to be patronized by both men and women. In contrast, many service venues Activities such as massage that were provided by venue staff were more likely in service venues. Approximately half of venue informants at both entertainment and service venues confirmed that people meet new sexual partners at the venue, and approximately one-fourth reported that there was someone onsite that helped potential partners meet. More informants at service venues HIV prevention activities, including HIV education talks, condom distribution, posters, and health worker outreach, were more common at service venues Although the mean age of female workers at both types of venues was similar Workers at service venues were less likely to have finished high school, less likely to live in urban Liuzhou, and more likely to have ever been married.
Mean monthly income was nearly identical among entertainment and service venue workers. Service venue workers were more likely to be paid directly by patrons. Most women at both types of venue reported that unemployment, violence, access to health care, AIDS, alcohol abuse, lack of education, and lack of food were big problems in Liuzhou data not shown. Although few reported injecting drugs, over half of the women reported that injecting drug use was a big problem in Liuzhou.
Workers at service venues were five times more likely than workers at entertainment venues to have a positive rapid syphilis test They were also significantly more likely to report risky sexual behaviors including multiple sexual partnerships in the last year Women at service venues were more likely to have met a sexual partner at the venue at which they worked However, workers at service venues were also more likely to carry a condom Table 2 Characteristics of women who work at entertainment and service venues Full size table Overall, female workers who reported sex work in the past four weeks were more likely to have a positive rapid test for syphilis than women who did not Association Between Working at a Service Venue and Syphilis Infection We assessed evidence of an association between working at a service venue and having a positive syphilis test see Fig.
After controlling for rural residence, age, and education, women at service venues remained twice as likely to have a positive syphilis test as their peers working in entertainment venues. Table 3 Outcome of modeling the association between venue type and a positive syphilis test Full size table Discussion We found that service and entertainment venues differed in size, onsite activities, and the male-to-female worker ratio, and that women working at service venues were more likely to have evidence of a current or previous syphilis infection than women working at entertainment venues.
