Risk aversion and HIV/AIDS: Evidence from Senegalese female sex workers.

ABSTRACT: HIV/AIDS is the second cause of mortality globally and there are 5000 new infections each day. Globally, sex workers are 13 times more at risk of HIV than the general population and in Senegal they have an HIV prevalence 16.5 times greater. Therefore, it is urgent to encourage behaviour change, which requires a better understanding of the reasons why sex workers engage in risky behaviours. We provide new evidence of the role of risk preferences on sexual behaviours, health behaviours and health outcomes of 600 female sex workers in Senegal in July and August 2017. We measure risk aversion of sex workers using an incentivised Gneezy and Potters task in addition to specific risk-taking scales in four domains (in general, finance, health and sex). Understanding of the experimental task was hi

SUBMITTER: Lepine A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7306163 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature