Clients of Commercial Sex Workers in Zambia: Prevalence, Frequency, and Risk Factors

The study analyses the profile and the behavior of male clients of female commercial sex workers (CSW’s) in Zambia. According to the Zambia 2001 DHS survey, among the 1730 men sexually active during the past year, the proportion who used the services of CSW’s in the 12 months prior to the survey was 13.2%. This proportion varied very much with age and marital status. Most clients of CSW’s were unmarried men. Several demographic, socioeconomic, and personal factors were identified, which effect differed according to marital status. Using the services of CSW’s appears as a very heterogeneous behavior, with major differences according to age, marital status, socioeconomic status, and personal attitudes. A multiple correspondence analysis revealed that attitudes (drinking, smoking, wife-beating) were orthogonal to age, marital status and socioeconomic status. The frequency of visits to CSW’s was fitted with a Poisson model. On the average, clients visited CSW’s 3.8 times a year.