HORIZONS PROJECT
Acceptability of the Female Condom by Sex Workers

This project employed a pre-/post-intervention evaluation study design, and researchers collected cross-sectional data from convenience samples of female sex workers at baseline (n = 211) and follow-up (n = 216). The samples of sex workers were drawn from four different socioeconomic settings in Campinas, in the state of São Paulo. To complement the quantitative data, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 20 women who participated in the final survey.

Key findings: 

• The number of ever-users of the female condom increased significantly.
• The female condom offers some advantages over the male condom.
• Sex workers are more likely to use a female condom with a regular client than with a new or occasional client.
• Practice increases sex workers’ comfort with the female condom.
• The majority of initiators currently are not using the female condom.
• The intervention did not affect male condom use with new clients.
• Reported levels of protected sex did not improve between baseline and final results.
• Less than a quarter (24 percent) of users actually bought a female condom.

Although some sex workers believe the female condom offers advantages over the male condom, the nature of the product (e.g., its size and appearance) serves as a barrier to near universal use among this population of sex workers. It remains unclear whether a more intense promotional intervention and less prohibitive market conditions would lead to more frequent use. Future investigations should focus on interventions that offer the female condom at prices similar to those for the subsidized male condom, combined with educational and promotional activities that highlight its advantages for sex workers and foster practice to gain confidence about using the product. Such interventions should also build upon sex workers’ preferences for using the female condom with regular clients and boyfriends, partners with whom male condom use has been problematic because of its association with a lack of trust and intimacy.

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Location

Campinas, Brazil

Duration

March 1999–December 2000

Horizons and Population Council researchers

Juan Díaz, Loren Galvão, Steve Mobley

(For more information about this study, please contact horizons@popcouncil.org.)

Non-Council collaborators

Maria Silvia Fruet (consultant)

Francisco Cabral (Reprolatina)

Nádia Marchi (University of Campinas)

Donor

US Agency for International Development

Publications/Resources
Horizons and Population Council researchers' names appear in boldface type. 

2002
"Acceptability of the female condom after a social marketing campaign in Campinas, Brazil," Horizons Research Summary. Washington, DC: Population Council. (full text)

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See Also

• Brazil

• Horizons Program

• HIV and AIDS

• HIV and AIDS/Prevention

• Reproductive Health

• Reproductive Health/Contraception

• Reproductive Health/RTIs and STIs

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