HIV/AIDS risk status of truck drivers in Myanmar : socio-economic factors affecting sexual behavior

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2012-08
Authors
Aung, San Tun
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[Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [August 2012]
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Myanmar has a concentrated HIV epidemic. HIV prevalence is high among high risk groups. The present study focuses on truck drivers and their assistants, a high risk group, because many of them have wide sexual networks: they have casual sex and engage in commercial sex on the road and at the truck terminals besides their regular sexual partners. Forming a "bridge population" linking the high risk group of female sex workers and the low risk group of their regular partners, truckers play an important role in the spread or the containment of the HIV epidemic. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine social and economic factors affecting truckers' engagement in nonexclusive sex and utilizes the social psychological expanded Theory of Planned Behavior to predict their sexual behavior. A qualitative study of 29 semi-structured interviews found that truckers engage in commercial or casual sex because they have freedom due to extended periods away from home, and have relatively high incomes that make commercial sex accessible and affordable. Although truckers do not embrace a subculture which emphasizes fatalism or nihilism related to sex, they do embrace a subculture which considers engaging in casual or commercial sex as a norm. Altogether 348 long distance truckers who had engaged in either casual or commercial sex in the past six months found that virtually all had engaged in commercial sex while 98 had engaged in non-commercial casual sex. Truckers who have higher incomes and had more sexual partners in the past six months are more likely to have engaged in casual sex in the period while those who are married and older are less likely to have done so. In addition, respondents who have higher incomes and who have had more years of schooling are more likely to have used condoms during their last casual sex. Analysis of truckers' involvement in commercial sex found that subjective norms and perceived behavior control variables were significant predictors for the respondents to use condoms during commercial sex. Intention and anticipated regret variables were significant predictors of the respondents' use of condoms during commercial sex.
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Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012.
Includes bibliographical references.
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sexual behaviors, truck drivers, HIV, AIDS, Myanmar
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Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Sociology.
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