title: Female sex work and international sport events - no major changes in demand or supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Important unanswered questions remain on the impact of international sporting events on the sex industry. Speculation about increased demand and supply of sex work often generates significant attention, but also additional funding for HIV programmes. This study assessed whether changes occurred in the demand and supply of paid sex during the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Trained sex worker interviewers conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews among consenting female sex workers during May-September 2010. Using bivariate analyses we compared supply, demand, sexual risk-taking, and police and health services contact pre-World Cup, to levels during the World Cup and after the event.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No increases were detected in indicators of sex work supply, including the proportion of sex workers newly arrived in the city (< 2.5% in each phase) or those recently entering the trade (≤ 1.5%). Similarly, demand for sex work, indicated by median number of clients (around 12 per week) and amount charged per transaction ($13) remained similar in the three study periods. Only a third of participants reported observing any change in the sex industry ascribed to the World Cup. Self-reported condom-use with clients remained high across all samples (> 92.4% in all phases). Health-care utilisation decreased non-significantly from the pre- to during World Cup period (62.4% to 57.0%; P = 0.075). Across all periods, about thirty percent of participants had interacted with police in the preceding month, two thirds of whom had negative interactions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contrary to public opinion, no major increases were detected in the demand or supply of paid sex during the World Cup. Although the study design employed was unable to select population-based samples, these findings do not support the public concern and media speculation prior to the event, but rather signal a missed opportunity for public health action. Given the media attention on sex work, future sporting events offer strategic opportunities to implement services for sex workers and their clients, especially as health service utilisation might decrease in this period.
authors.affiliation: International Centre for Reproductive Health, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. marlise.richter@gmail.com
authors.forename: Marlise
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Luchters
authors.forename: Dudu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ndlovu
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Temmerman
authors.forename: Matthew Francis
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Chersich
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011477:Sex Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D060386:Sex Workers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012916:Soccer; D013019:South Africa