The PEARL study: a prospective two-group pilot PrEP promotion intervention for cisgender female sex workers living in Baltimore, MD, U.S.

Figures & data

Figure 1. Study process diagram.

Figure 2. CONSORT diagram describing participant recruitment for PEARL at baseline.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of socio-demographic information for participants (N = 39).

Variable	Total (N = 39)	Control (N = 20)	Intervention (N = 19)	p-value^a
	N (col %)	N (row %)	N (row %)
Age (median, IQR)	40 (33–48)	38 (32–44)	42 (33–49)	0.383
Race/ethnicity				0.205
Non-hispanic white	20 (51.3)	8 (40.0)	12 (63.2)
Non-hispanic black	19 (48.7)	12 (60.0)	7 (36.8)
Highest education^b				0.507
Less than high school	12 (31.6)	7 (58.3)	5 (41.7)
Graduated high school/GED	11 (28.9)	7 (63.6)	4 (36.4)
Some higher education	15 (39.5)	6 (40.0)	9 (60.0)
Structural insecurity (6 months)
Experienced homelessness^b,c	32 (82.0)	16 (50)	16 (50)	0.661
Number of places stayed or lived^b,c (median, IQR)	4 (2–8)	3.5 (2–6.5)	4.5 (3–9)	0.4177
Go to bed hungry at least once a week^c	26 (66.7)	10 (38.5)	16 (61.5)	0.041
Drug use
Ever injected drugs	19 (48.7)	8 (42.1)	11 (57.9)	0.343
Recent injection drug use^c	2 (5.1)	1 (50)	1 (50)	1.000
Recent heroin use^c	29 (74.4)	14 (48.3)	15 (51.7)	0.716
Recent crack or powdered cocaine use^c	35 (89.7)	19 (54.3)	15 (45.7)	0.342
Sex work
Number of paying clients in the past week^b (median, IQR)	3 (1–10)	2.5 (1–11)	3 (1–10)	0.6805

Continuous variables of displayed as median (interquartile range).

^a p-values were tested the difference between the two groups: Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and Wilcoxon rank-sum test for continuous variables.

^b N = 38.

^c Reported within the past 6 months.