Measuring ethnicity, especially indigenousness, but not race is common in Latin America. At least one country, Ecuador, has also included both the interviewer’s observation and respondent’s self-identity in censuses (Hall and Patrinos, ed., 2006)Bolivia in 2001 characterized respondents as indigenous or not using a matrix of language and self-identity variables (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, CEPAL, 2005)
84% of women and 88% of men in the 2008-09 survey identified themselves the same way the interviewer did, as either indigenous or ladino13% of women and 8% of men self-identified as indigenous, but were identified by the interviewer as ladinoCross-identification in the other direction was rare (around2%), and the remaining cases had ‘other’ or no response on one or both ethnicity variables
Lots of other countries, including the US, have grappled for decades with differences between these two measures, and with deciding which one is “right” or best for a certain research or policy context.
Why can’t we just choose the measure that’s easiest or cheapest to implement?Newer DHS data using self-identity aren’t directly comparable with results from previous years, the main reason official reports continue to present the interviewer’s observation alone.
Some political and implementation issues that have arisen elsewhere:In 2012 Bolivia’s census recorded respondents’ identification with any one of 40 indigenous groups or Afro-Bolivian, but did not include “mestizo.” Critics suggested that the decision was “calculated to protect Evo Morales' presidency” and fears of expropriation reportedly led people to underreport their assets.
Why do you think the US Census Bureau would risk offending people by keeping the term “Negro” in its questionnaire?Before 1960, census-takers filled out the form and chose the category for each person they counted. Self-identification was fully in place by 1970.
In preliminary work using a dichotomous ethnicity variable, we tested effect sizes both ways.Although our answer to the question “Is the indigenous group at higher risk?” didn’t change, ethnicity did show stronger effects on HIV risk factors using the interviewer’s observation (e.g. differences between the two groups were more pronounced)
We added a third category to the independent variable, comparing odds for ladinos and the cross-identified group separately to those for indigenous respondents.
On nearly every outcome, the ladino and cross-identified groups were comparably (and significantly) different from indigenous respondents.In these examples for the odds for ever having had an HIV test were 2.25 times higher for ladino women compared to indigenous women, and 2.46 times higher for cross-identified women compared to indigenous women. The odds of having comprehensive HIV knowledge were 1.58 times higher for ladino men compared to indigenous men and there was a marginal difference between cross identified men and indigenous men.
From “Conceptualizing and Categorizing Race and Ethnicity in Health Services Research,” 2005.Our results echo this conclusion. The indigenous population becomes ‘ladinoized’ if self-identification is used to determine group membership, lessening demographic and risk factor distinctions between the groups. Other studies have opted to measure acculturation directly using validated scales.
Another example: American Indianpopulationgrew 255% between 1960 and 1996, largely through changing patterns of racial self-identification. (Passel, 1996)
COSIDRA has disseminated the findings of the study nationally.High-level meetings with the National Statistics Institute, Ministries, donors and civil society to discuss the implications of our findings and of measuring ethnicity on the upcoming census.
-Delinking of behavior from lived experience, social context, to focus on individual behavior.-largely focused on sexual behavior, rather than overall health and well-beingDSM = “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”After last bullet – while the inclusiveness of this term has increased diversity with this group, there may be a loss nuance. For example, transgender women, who are often included in this group, have different life experiences and vulnerabilities to HIV.
MSM is a population that has emerged from HIV research and practice-it’s a way to define a group based on a high-risk behavior vs. sexual orientation. You may have men who self-identify as heterosexual, be married to a woman and have sex with another man and you would be leaving them out of your study. May be harder to reach group b/c not necessarily at Gay venues, etc.-sexual orientation refers to who you are attracted to sexually, someone of the same or different biological sex
Transgender women have often been included as sub-group of MSM in much HIV research and surveillanceCoined in the 1970s, transgender referred to people who lived full-time in the gender opposite to their sex (generally) assigned at birth, but did not seek gender reassignment surgery.In the 1990s, transgender evolved to be an umbrella term to describe the identities and experiences of individuals who transgress traditional categories of sex and gender. As a personal identity, transgender is used by people who “feel a need to express a gender identity different from the one society associates with their genitals” It is an umbrella term encompassing many identities including transsexuals, cross-dressers, transvestites, intersexuals othersThe boundaries of identity for transgender people remains nebulous. Sex is generally thought of as biologically based, with the physical body, hormones and chormosomes indicating sex. Sex is usually designated soley on the physical appearance of genitalia. Categories of female and male are putatively seen as exhaustive, mutually exclusive and immutable. Some believe that sex, like gender, is also socially constructed. Gender is traditionally been viewed as a natural and essential counterpart to sex. It is an ascribed status which designates the psychological, social and cultural aspects of maleness and femaleness. Gender, gender roles and gender presentation are susceptible to cultural definitions and can change over time. Gender identity is the internal, private experience of one’s gender, it is a self-attribution of genderGender roles are social, public, with implied expectations, obligations and privileges associated with each gender.Femininity and masculinity are ideological constructions whose manifestations (women, men, girls and boys) are recreated in each generation according to the intermeshing requirements of social, cultural, econoic and biological necessities.
It is in this context that USAID’s Central American Regional HIV Program requested that MEASURE conduct a health service utilization study among MSM in San Salvador, El SalvadorThe HIV epidemic in El Salvador is concentrated among MSM, TW and Sex WorkersWe know from a 2008 HIV Prevalence and Behavior Study that HIV prevalence was 10.8% among MSM, a figure that included TW.
We faced a serious challenge when initiating the study. After El Salvador’s 2008 HIV prevalence study, TW groups were strong advocates that demanded TW specific data. They did not want to be considered a sub-group of MSM that could not be disaggregated in the results. They wanted to be able to say something about their community/population for advocacy, programming, funding, etc. We didn’t have enough money to do two separate surveys… We spent a lot of time deciding whether to include TW in the sample or exclude. As you can tell from the image of the report cover, we included them.We made this decision based on several factors: We wanted did not want to exclude such a highly vulnerable group from the studyFrom previous studies we knew that TW were highly socially connected to MSM in San Salvador and would be collected in an RDS sampleWhile we didn’t know if we would have enough TW in the study to be able to disaggregate, we coordinated with USAID’s AIDSTAR ONE Project, which was going to implement a mixed methods health services study among TW at the same time we were in the field.
What did we do? We designed a study that aimed to:Describe past-year health service utilization, including general health and HIV/STI services.Identify factors that may influence health service utilization.Determine the extent of experienced discrimination from healthcare providers We made efforts to ensure that we were explicitly acknowledging TW in our study population, byReaching out and gathering input from TW organzations and our own field teamDeveloping eligibility criteria and survey questions that were inclusive of TWIncluding a TW as part of the interviewer teamIncluding a TW as a seed in implementation of respondent driving samplingWe also made efforts to measure the related constructs accurately. Again we reached out to TW organizations, sharing our tools and gating inputImportantly, we measured gender identity and sexual orientation separately, and we will take about this in a few slides.-We anticipated getting about 10% of our sample as TW, which consistent with the 2008 BBSS and other studies in El Salvador and the region.-If we excluded TW, we would have no data on that population.-Concern about getting a small percentage, from which populations would be eager to First issue we had to confront was about representing each population in the study The second issue, was about measuring constructs appropriately in the study, so as not to generalize experiences of one group with the other (wrongly attributing findings to both groups), or to miss findings important within each group.
For bothstudies:18 years of age or olderA man or transgender woman who had anal sex (receptive or penetrative) with another man or transgender woman in the last 12 monthsLived, worked, or studied in San Salvador for at least 3 months prior to the interviewIn possession of an RDS coupon given to them by someone they know who participated in the study (exception for seeds)
Examples of how we framed quesitons to be inclusive:READ QUESTIONS
We also asked separate questions to measure gender identity and sexual orientationIn many HIV studies in concentrated epidemics, transgender women have been included as a sub-group of the MSM population. In Central America and other regions, the constructs of gender identity and sexual orientation has been conflated and generally asked a single question. As a reminder, Gender identity is defined as one’s personal sense of gender, of being a man or a woman or something different Sexual orientation is one’s erotic and emotional attraction to another. Our classification of sexual orientation is generally assumed to be based on biological sex.
Here we have an example of how the question was asked in the 2008 El Salvador Biological and Behavioral Surveillance Study. READ QUESTIONThis form of the question makes the selection of one’s gender identity and sexual orientation mutually exclusive. If you identify as a transgender, you cannot choose a sexual orientation.
In the 2011 MEASURE study, we asked two separate questions. First we asked the respondents to identify their sexual orientation.In a separate question we asked them to indicate their gender identity.
The 2011 MEASURE study had nearly twice as many TW in the study compared to the 2008 biological and behavioral surveillance study. Our study found 18.5% of the sample to be TW compared to 9.1 of the 2008 study.It is possible that there are more transgender women in our study because of the explicit inclusion of TW in the eligibility criteria.It is also possible that there appears to be more TW in our study because we measured gender identity separate from sexual orientation, while in the other study TW had to choose between sexual orientation and gender identity.2008 BBSS, only data from San Salvador is represented in this slide – pie chart?-In SM an additional 26 TW and 166 MSM participated; weighted percent in SM of TW was 12.1%; 93 TW total
There is a possibility that if a transgender woman had to choose between identifying as being heterosexual or as transgender we would have inflated the percentage of MSM considered to be heterosexual.Why important? Heterosexual MSM are considered to be hardest to reach and bridge population.
Wewerealsoabletoseedifferences in characteristics of thestudypopulationbygenderidentity.For example more MSM had medical insurance and a regular healthcareprovidercomparedtotransgenderwomen.Menos de un cuarto (menos de 25%) reportaron tener un seguro medico o proveedor regular de salud.Mas HSH tienen seguro medico y un proveedor regular que MTNota: Definición de proveedor regular – Usted tiene un médico u otro profesional de salud a quien acude normalmente cuando está enfermo o necesita cuidado médico
As anotherexampletransgenderwomenwere more likelytoreportexperiencingdiscrimanationfrom a healthcareprovidercomparedto MSM.For example 74% of TW reportedbeingrefusedhealthservicesbecause of genderidentityor sexual orientationcomparedto 55% of MSM Lamayoria de los HSH y mujeres trans experimentaron discriminación de parte de un proveedor de salud. Por ejemplo 55% fueron tratado con menos respeto por un proveedor alguna vez.59% recibio peor calidad de servicios por ser HSH/mujer transLe negaron servicios a 58% Y 58% sintio que era necesario decirle al proveedor que era heterosexual.54.4% reporto altos niveles de discriminación por parte del proveedorMT reportan MAS discriminacion por parte de un proveedor de salud HSH
We also see differences in social vulnerability between the two groups. MSM were more likely to report having been homeless in the 6 months prior to the study compared to TWWhereas, TW were more likely to report having been incarcerated or to have engaged in sex work than MSM
Surprisingly there was no difference between MSM and TW in the percentage who reported experiencing abuse or maltreatment in the past 12 months.We hypothesized that more TW women would have reported experiencing maltreatment or abuse because their stigma is generally more visible. These results may indicate that stigma takes many forms and can be equally detrimental to both groups.Nota – no hay unadiferencia entre experincias de abuso y maltrato en los ultimos 12 meses entre HSH y mujeres trans)
Increased risk due to transmission probability and contact rate.-generalized epidemic – national prevalence is above 1%-concentrated, national prevalence is below 1% but above 5% in higher risk populations-low level, mixed above 1%, but not too high, and above 5% in higher risk groups (Caribbean)
Similarly, the
-Developed as a mechanism to obtain population-based generalizable estimates of surveillance for HIV/STI
Median network size – 10 (1-350)
La mayoria se identifico como hombre, pero casi 20% se auto-identifico como mujer transgenero.En cuanto a orientacion sexual, 38% son hombres gay u homosexual. 44% son Hombres bisexuales o heterosexuales. 14% son mujeres trans que se identifican como heterosexual y 4% son mujeres trans que se identifican como gay o bisexual.Casi 69% tienen una pareja hombre o una pareja trans