Factors influencing women's sex work in a Lebanese sample: results of a case-control study.
BACKGROUND
Many constituents contribute to the rise of sex work in Lebanon such as the socio-economic situation in the country (poverty, increased unemployment rates, and religious divisions), as well as the political and social instability. Several emotional and psychological factors such as depression, stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, emotional abuse, may force some people to rely on trading sex as a coping strategy for persevering. Therefore, it was deemed interesting to explore and understand factors that are correlated with sex work in Lebanon where no study, to our knowledge, has been written on this critical point. The objective of the study was to assess factors (such as trauma, child abuse, partner abuse, depression, anxiety, and stress) associated with women joining sex work among a sample of the Lebanese population.


METHODS
A case-control study was conducted on a group of women (60 sex workers recruited from a prison for women) involved in sex work matched for age and sex with a control group (60 non-sex workers). Controls were chosen from the same prison population as the sex workers.


RESULTS
A logistic regression was conducted, taking being a sex worker vs not as the dependent variable; independent factors were sociodemographic characteristics, child (psychological, neglect, physical and verbal) and inter partner violence (physical and non-physical), depression, anxiety and stress. Higher anxiety (aOR = 1.08) and higher inter partner physical violence (aOR = 1.02) were altogether related with higher chances of being a sex worker.


CONCLUSION
This study proposes an association between child abuse, inter partner violence, alcohol consumption, anxiety, and sex work. Future research may also need to contemplate other factors not examined here, including parental substance use, personality traits, and many others.
['Slim|Maria|M|', 'Haddad|Chadia|C|', 'Sfeir|Elsa|E|', 'Rahme|Clara|C|', 'Hallit|Souheil|S|0000-0001-6918-5689', 'Obeid|Sahar|S|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D054523:Adult Survivors of Child Abuse D000069586:Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events D000428:Alcohol Drinking D001007:Anxiety D016022:Case-Control Studies D002648:Child D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007398:Interpersonal Relations D007861:Lebanon D008016:Life Change Events D008297:Male D011477:Sex Work D060386:Sex Workers D012747:Sexual Partners D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic D055815:Young Adult
Sex work Anxiety Child abuse Partner abuse Sex workers Alcohol drinking