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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1464307
This article is part of the Research Topic Mental Health and Well-being of Sex Workers: Exploring Risks, Resilience and Interventions View all articles

An Explorative Qualitative Study of Barriers to the Use of Health and Mental Health Services among Migrant Female Sex Workers in Germany and Needs for Action

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
  • 2 Berlin School of Public Health, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Migrant female sex workers can be exposed to various health risks due to their occupation, including mental and physical health, substance use, and experience of violence. However, they face substantial barriers to accessing healthcare services. The inadequate access to medical care for migrant female sex workers poses a challenge to the German health care system.Research Aims: This qualitative study aims to identify and analyze the barriers to the use of health and mental health services by migrant female sex workers in Berlin and what should be done to improve the access to health care and to make it easier to use health and mental health services for migrant female sex workers. The data collected can be used to derive overarching recommendations and strategies for action. Methods: Semi-structured, guided interviews were conducted with 10 migrant female sex workers in Berlin, Germany. The interviews were audio recorded and the content of the transcribed interviews was analyzed. A structuring qualitative content analysis, according to Kuckartz, with deductiveinductive category formation was conducted in MAXQDA 2022.Results: Barriers were analyzed at three levels: patient, provider and system. The patient level was related to the patient characteristics: social structure variables, health beliefs and attitudes, personal enabling resources, community enabling resources, perceived illness, and personal health practices.The provider level was related to the provider characteristics: skills and attitudes. The system level was related to the system characteristics: the organization of the health care system on a local and national levels. Moreover, needs for actions were identified, which can be used for deriving recommendations for the improvement of healthcare situation of migrant sex workers living in Berlin.Conclusions/Discussion: Health services and future intervention studies should consider barriers identified in this study to improve the health services utilization and health of sex workers as part of the effort to protect the right of humans to health.

    Keywords: migrant female sex workers, barriers, Health services use, needs for action, Qualitative

    Received: 13 Jul 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lotysh, Tezcan-Güntekin, Kalinowski, Kaya, Kroehn-Liedtke, Mihaylova, Schouler-Ocak and Rössler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anastasiia Lotysh, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

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