Abstract

In most countries in the world, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are considered as a serious threat, they pose great impact on individual, family, and community. The impacts of STIs on women are usually more severe and more difficult to be diagnosed than impacts on men because STIs usually occurred without observable symptoms, and usually woman has guilty feeling and embarrassed about their condition and thus hinder them to look for medication. These make STIs a hidden burden for women. Prevalence of STIs in Indonesia according to several studies in 1990-2000 periods is quite high. One strategy to break the infection chain is to promote condom use among women sex workers (WSW). This study aims at investigating factors related to condom use practice among street WSW in East Jakarta. The design of this study is cross-sectional with quantitative approach, and using primary data of 112 street WSW. The study found that there are 60.7% respondents who use condom in the last sexual activity. Multivariate analysis shows that the most dominant factor is the experience on suffering from STIs infection, with OR 3.55. Age, level of education, working duration as WSW, knowledge on STIs, and exposure on STIs information, all have no statistically significant relationship with condom use practice. It is suggested that to increase the access and availability of condom, to increase the quality and quantity of information, education, and communication activities by strengthening networking and partnership with related sectors, and to empower the WSW themselves on disseminating and spreading information on STIs and condom.