Correlates of HIV and Inconsistent Condom Use Among Female Sex Workers in Ukraine.

While female sex workers (FSWs) carry one of the highest risks of HIV transmission, little is known about predictors of HIV and risky behavior of FSWs in Ukraine. In this study of 4806 Ukrainian FSWs, the prevalence of HIV was 5.6 %. FSWs had higher odds to be HIV infected if they had lower income, were older, injected drugs, experienced violence, and solicited clients on highways. Inconsistent condom use with clients was reported by 34.5 % of FSWs. FSWs who solicited clients at railway stations, via media, through previous clients and other FSWs, and on highways reported lower consistency of condom use. Furthermore, inconsistent condom use was related to younger age, alcohol use, having fewer clients, not being covered with HIV prevention, and experiences of violence. The present study expands on the rather limited knowledge of correlates of the HIV and inconsistent condom use among FSWs in Ukraine.

The impact of early life stress on risk of tobacco smoking initiation by adolescents.

AIMS: Our study aimed to examine the association between early life stress and early initiation of alcohol and tobacco use. DESIGN: This prospective cohort study of women and children belongs to the Ukrainian component of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. SETTING: Dniprodzerzhynsk, a city of some 250,000 inhabitants in south central Ukraine. PARTICIPANTS: All 4398 women who visited antenatal clinics between December 25, 1992 and July 23, 1994, planned to continue their pregnancy, and were permanent residents of the city were invited to participate. Of the 4398 invitees, 2148 agreed and 1020 of the mother-child pairs were available for complete follow-up until the children were 16 years old. MEASUREMENTS: When study children reached ages 3 and 7, their mothers completed questionnaires about their children's exposure to and impact from a standard list of recent stressful life events. From the data on event prevalence and severity, we assigned each child to low, medium, or high early life stress. When the children became age 16, they completed questionnaires about their history of smoking and drinking. FINDINGS: In multivariate analysis that controlled for current level of family income, current family type, current school type, year of child's birth, lifetime smoking and current drinking by mother, and education of mother and father, girls with high stress at age 3 had 2.2 times (95% confidence interval: 1.23-4.08) higher odds than girls with low stress to start smoking early. CONCLUSIONS: Our study may be the first to use a longitudinal study design to examine early life stress as a risk factor for early smoking initiation in adolescence.