HIV prevalence and risk behaviours among foreign migrant women residing in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

HIV prevalence and risk behaviour among foreign migrants in South Africa has not been explored. This paper describes the effectiveness of respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to recruit foreign migrant women residing in Cape Town, reports HIV prevalence, and describes key characteristics among them. We conducted a biological and behavioural surveillance survey using RDS. After written informed consent, participants completed an audio computer assisted self-interview and provided a dried blood sample for HIV analysis. HIV prevalence was estimated to be 7 % (CI 4.9-9.5) among 935 women. HIV sero-positivity was associated with older age (p = 0.001), country of origin (p < 0.000), being unmarried (p < 0.000), having lived in South Africa for 3-5 years (p = 0.023), sexual debut at ≥15 years (p = 0.047), and having used a condom at last sex with a main partner (p = 0.007). Few women reported early sexual debut, or multiple sexual partners. RDS was successful in recruiting foreign migrant women.

Fig. 1

Recruitment diagnostics for the Men’s Health and Migration Project by participant country of origin. Recruitment Tree network plot of the RDS recruitment process. Recruits per Seed total tree size (i.e. number of participants successfully recruited into the study) for each seed. Recruit per Subject number of participants successfully recruited by non-terminal participants. In this study, every active nonterminal participant recruited 1, 2, 3, or 4 participants. Recruits by Wave number of participants recruited within each wave