This study examines the socio-structural sexual health risks of female youth (aged 14-17) working in bar/spa venues and brothels in the Philippines, compared to their older counterparts. Aside from this study, few female sex work studies have interviewed youth under 18. On four southern Philippines islands, 770 female sex workers (FSWs), aged 14-48, were recruited from bar/spa venues and brothels to participate in a socio-structural HIV prevention study. Controlling for the effects of a larger HIV prevention intervention study involving 1484 female bar/spa workers, the minors, compared to older FSWs, had less education (AOR: 0.81, CI: 0.70-0.94), less children (AOR: 0.19, CI: 0.10-0.37), and were more likely to work in illegal brothels (AOR: 4.60, CI: 1.66-12.75) and to be high on drugs during sex (AOR: 2.26, CI: 1.39-3.67). It was less likely that anyone talked to them about HIV prevention (AOR: 0.32, CI: 0.15-0.72), but more likely they were recruited by venue owners (AOR: 5.67, 1.56-20.56) and were told by their managers to have sex without a condom (AOR: 6.80, CI: 2.06-22.39). Results suggest a need for organizational and policy level interventions to protect adolescent females from working in unsafe environments in the Philippines and to prevent youth from being recruited into high-risk situations.
Keywords: HIV; Philippines; sex trade; trafficking; youth.