Domestic workers living with employers less likely to engage in risky sexual behavours

The city’s Filipino domestic workers who lived under the same roof as their employers were less inclined to engage in risky sexual behaviors, compared to those who lived separately, a medical journal revealed.

According to the study, 34.3% of female domestic workers from the Philippines who were living with employers claimed that they had unprotected sex more than half the time over the year before the survey period. This is almost half as often as the figure of 65.8% which was reported by their stay-out counterparts.

Researchers narrowed the study’s focus to Macau’s Filipino domestic helpers, given that they have taken up the greatest share of the total number of domestic helpers in town, and the Philippines has been one of the world’s leading labor-exporting countries. As of the end of October this year, the city had 16,538 employed Filipino domestic helpers. They made up the majority, or around 55.8%, of all employed household helpers across nationalities (29,639). This was followed by 6,387 from Vietnam and 4,271 from Indonesia.
The scientific survey polled a total of 1,368 female migrant domestic workers in Macau from November 2016 to August 2017. The live-in domestic workers were also found to be less likely engaged in other risky sexual behaviors, including “sex while drunk” (8.6%), “sex with three or more sexual partners” (1.4%), and “sex in exchange for money or gifts” (0.3%). Those figures were recorded at higher rates among stay-out peers, at 13.9%, 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively.
Researchers ascribed the lower likelihood of taking part in risky sexual behaviors to increased surveillance, less freedom and less mobility when dwelling in the same house as employers.
However, “stay-out workers are likely at greater liberty to engage with their peer networks than live-in workers, leading to relatively increased sexual risk-taking,” researchers reasoned.
Not only were live-in domestic helpers in Macau less likely to have unsafe sex, they also displayed a lower exposure to reproductive tract infection (RTI) symptoms.
The figures suggest that it is relatively safer for foreign domestic workers to live with their bosses in terms of their sexual health. Nonetheless, the report also stated the restricted mobility may “prevent stay-in workers from seeking and/or accessing necessary sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care.”
This statement was corroborated by the survey’s result. Only 7.1% of Filipino domestic workers visited obstetricians or gynecologists (OBGYN) in Macau in the year of the surveyed period, whilst the figure went up to 11.7% for stay-out workers.
Another finding that may be surprising for some is that the domestic helpers who were living with their employers in fact had a higher likelihood of obtaining a HIV test in the past-year.
Scientists associated this discovery with the fact that HIV testing in Macau has become more accessible as some non-governmental organizations, like Caritas Macau, have started to offer complimentary HIV tests and counseling for local domestic helpers.
The research result was recently published in the Journal of Migration and Health. The study was led by Prof Brian Hall from the New York University Shanghai, and comprised of the lead author and co-authors from the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a physician from the University of Hong Kong.

The study concluded that the living conditions of Macau’s Filipino domestic workers — either living under the same roof with employers or living separately — significantly affect their engagement in risky sexual behaviors and intention to seek sexual health medical services.
The research is titled “The influence of housing on sexual and reproductive health status and service utilization among Filipina migrant domestic workers in Macao (SAR), China: A population survey.” Staff Reporter