# HIV Risk Among Young Women Workers in the Industrial Zone in Vietnam

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $201,495

## Abstract

Project Abstract
Over the last three decades, the industrial zones (IZs) in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) have rapidly
expanded as global corporations search for the lowest unit cost in production of garments and other products
for high-income country markets. Globally, low skilled rural young women constitute 60-90% of the IZ workforce.
For these rural, young women, emerging adulthood takes place in the context of long hours of difficult work,
residence in deteriorated and crowded housing and in communities on the periphery of cities, where men
represent both a means of temporary or permanent escape from life in the IZ, as well as a source of economic,
physical and sexual risk. Among these risks is contracting HIV; studies in South and Southeast Asia, have
shown that HIV prevalence is 10-12 times greater among migrants than non-migrants. The study population for
this project are young women workers in an IZ in Hanoi, Vietnam with a workforce of 600,000, of which 70%
are women. These unmarried women are particularly vulnerable to risk of HIV transmission as they deal with
male supervisors and male peers at work, male landlords and shopkeepers and men in the community who
seek their disposable income and sexual availability. These risks occur in a context of gender inequality, limited
social supports, patriarchal norms, job insecurity and limited knowledge about safe sex. There have been few
studies of HIV risk among IZ workers in Vietnam and as a result, they remain an unaddressed risk group. This
R21 application seeks to investigate HIV prevalence and risk and generate results that can be the basis for
reducing HIV risk among young women workers in the IZ. The specific aims of this proposed exploratory project
are to: 1) Conduct qualitative data collection using key informant and in-depth interviews to understand women's
adaptations to the IZ and to develop a culturally relevant survey instrument administered to young women
working in the IZ; 2) Estimate the prevalence of HIV among young women IZ workers through rapid HIV testing
and survey administration to determine knowledge, attitude and behavioral HIV risk factors; 3) Assess the
factors associated with serostatus including internal resources, social network composition, risk characteristics,
and residential and community sexual violence and stigma. The project will be conducted by an interdisciplinary
and international team of experienced Vietnamese and US researchers. Industrial zones have become a part
of almost all LMICs and are a major component of production for global corporations and high-income
economies. The results of this research can contribute to reducing HIV risk among women workers in Vietnam
as well as IZ workers in other countries through empirically-generated results that can form the basis for
identifying contributory factors to HIV and HIV risk that can be the targets of effective interventions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10291179
- **Project number:** 7R21MH118986-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Toan Ha
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $201,495
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2020-12-18 → 2022-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10291179

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10291179, HIV Risk Among Young Women Workers in the Industrial Zone in Vietnam (7R21MH118986-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10291179. Licensed CC0.

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