Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39277810›Full record

ArticleScandinavian journal of psychology2025

Sex workers' professional agency, quality of life, and problematic substance use in Finland.

Annika Gunst, Mimmi Uusitalo, Petra Pölönen, Štefan Petrík, Jan Antfolk

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scandinavian journal of psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Annika GunstDepartment of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8358-8983
Mimmi UusitaloDepartment of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
Petra PölönenDepartment of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.
Štefan PetríkNational Institute of Education and Youth, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2481-5741
Jan AntfolkDepartment of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0334-4987

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionSex workers suffer considerable marginalization that limits their choices and exposes them to various types of harm. Hence, it is important to examine sex workers' professional agency and its association with quality of life. In the current study, we investigated professional agency, quality of life, and problematic substance use among sex workers in Finland.

methodsUsing an online survey, we collected data from 136 sex workers contacted through Finnish sex work organizations and social media platforms. We conducted correlational analyses between the study variables and linear regression analyses with professional agency as the independent variable and quality of life and problematic alcohol and drug use as dependent variables.

resultsAs expected, in the regression analyses, professional agency was strongly positively associated with quality of life (β = 0.86, p < 0.001) and negatively associated with problematic alcohol (β = -0.38, p = 0.002) and drug (β = -0.69, p < 0.001) use. Professional agency explained as much as 73% of the variance in quality of life. Most sex workers rated their quality of life as either good or very good.

conclusionOur results underscore the importance of professional agency to sex workers' well-being, explaining a substantial proportion of the variance in quality of life. Promoting agency should therefore be at the heart of sex work policymaking. However, as most of the respondents were Finnish-born cis women, our results might not generalize to foreign-born, male, and gender diverse sex workers. Future studies should prioritize reaching these populations to ensure broader representativeness.

Indexed as

Quality of LifeSex WorkersSubstance-Related DisordersAdultFemaleFinlandHumansMaleMiddle AgedYoung Adultalcoholprofessional agencyquality of lifeSex worksubstance usewell‐being

Identifiers

PMID39277810
PMCPMC11735243

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.