Estimating the Population of Female Sex Workers in Hamadan, Western Iran, 2014

Estimating the population of female sex workers (FSWs) is necessary to monitor HIV epidemic, behavioral risk factors and implement preventive.
The current study aimed to evaluate the population of FSWs in Hamadan, west of Iran.
Patients and Minimum required data was extracted from 3 registry centers of (a) woman volunteer counseling and Testing Centers (WVCTCs); (b) welfare office drop in Centers (DICw); and (c) health deputy drop in centers (DICh) in Hamadan. The current study estimated the number of FSWs not identified by any of the 3 centers by log-linear model, and hence, the total FSWs population (N). The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) were used as model selection and goodness of fit criteria.
There might be 493 (95% confidence interval (CI): 351 - 693) FSWs not identified by any of the centers. Therefore, the real number of FSWs is expected to be 842 (95%CI: 700 - 1042). These results showed that only 41.4% of FSWs were registered by the 3 sources.
According to the underestimation of FSWs population by registry data sources in Hamadan, it was concluded that the policy makers should provide health care services and preventive activities according to actual size of FSWs population.