Health Status and Use of Healthcare Services of Undocumented Migrant Sex Workers in Catalonia: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using Administrative Registries

The objective of the study is to describe the health status and use of public healthcare services of undocumented migrant sex workers (UMSWs) attended in Catalonia be-tween 2013 and 2018. This study utilized a descriptive observational research design. Non-parametric tests were applied to estimate differences in the use of public healthcare services, and incidence and prevalence of selected sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) according to gender and region of origin. Out of 1,464 women and 199 men SWs, 855 (51.4%) contacted once or more primary care services, and 378 (22.7%) used emergency services. Differences between men and women were only found re-garding specific primary care services. Differences between regions of origin were found in the use of primary care services (Sub-Saharan Africa had 65.9% while Europe and Central Asia 43.0%). Results suggest that UMSWs do not use public healthcare services as often as legal residents or other documented migrants as seen in other studies.