Aurélia Lépine
Biographic Data
| ID | 1266653 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aurélia Lépine |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aurélia |
| FAMILY NAME | Lépine |
| SIGNATURE | LÉPINE A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9237-2914 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Insured but unequal
BACKGROUND: Health insurance is central to universal health coverage (UHC), but expanded coverage does not guarantee equitable access for marginalized populations. This study examines how the POWER health insurance programme differently affected women engaged in transactional sex and female sex workers in Yaoundé, Cameroon. METHODS: We conducted qualitative interviews in two independent cross-sectional waves with 42 participants in total includin…
Cost-effectiveness of health insurance among women engaged in transactional sex and impacts on HIV transmission in Cameroon
INTRODUCTION: HIV prevalence disproportionately affects high-risk populations, particularly female sex workers in Africa. Women and girls engaging in transactional sex (WGTS) face similar health risks from unsafe practices, economic vulnerabilities and stigma. However, they are not recognised. METHODS: Using existing literature and data from the POWER randomised controlled trial, we developed a deterministic compartmental model to assess HIV dyna…
Condom use prevalence during the Covid-19 pandemic among female sex workers in Dakar, Senegal
Literature suggests that individuals may trade off health for income in face of an economic shock. Being in a close contact profession, the livelihoods of sex workers were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies exist on whether prevalence of better-renumerated condomless sex increased among this population in low and middle-income countries and discuss its implications on HIV/STI transmission, specifically during pandemic situati…
Estimating the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry via indirect elicitation methods
Data from children suggest that the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire is a worrying 38%. However, while surveying children has the potential to reduce sensitivity biases such as social desirability bias, it presents significant ethical dilemmas and may also be associated with other reporting biases, making accurate estimates of child labour difficult. To address this, we collected data from 1741 cocoa producers to …
Public prostitutes and private prostitutes
Women engaging in transactional sex would require equal attention than FSWs in terms of HIV prevention. Like FSWs, they have multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex. They should be considered a 'key population' for HIV prevention. This would improve public health outcomes, suggesting the need to target women engaging in transactional sex on a greater scale than previously attempted in Sub-Saharan Africa
Fertility and polygyny
Decision-making about fertility differs between monogamous and polygynous households. In an experiment in Burkina Faso that gives women access to free contraceptives, either alone or with their husband, involving the husband decreases contraceptive use among monogamous women, but not among polygynous women. Where there is co-wife rivalry, it increases contraceptive use. This is consistent with a model where monogamous women have a stronger prefer…
Can Self-affirmation Encourage HIV-Prevention? Evidence from Female Sex Workers in Senegal
We test an intervention aiming to increase condom usage and HIV testing in a stigmatized population at high risk of contracting HIV: female sex workers (FSWs) in Senegal. Some sex work is legal in Senegal, and condoms and HIV tests are freely available to registered FSWs-but FSWs may be reluctant to get tested and use condoms, in part because doing so would entail acknowledging their risk of contracting HIV and potentially expose them to stigma. …
The long-term effects of free care on birth outcomes
As women in many countries still fail to give birth in facilities due to financial barriers, many see the abolition of user fees as a key step on the path towards universal coverage. We exploited the staggered removal of user charges in Zambia from 2006 to estimate the effect of user fee removal up to five years after the policy change. We used data from the birth histories of two nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys to implem…
From a drought to HIV
Each year there are over 300 natural disasters globally with millions of victims that cost economic losses near USD$100 billion. In the context of climate change, an emerging literature linking extreme weather events to HIV infections suggests that efforts to control the HIV epidemic could be under threat. We used Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data collected during the 2015-2016 harsh drought that affected several areas of Malawi to provide…
Sexuality-based stigma and access to care
Men who have sex with men (MSM) in Senegal face a challenging socio-legal context, marked by homophobia and the illegality of homosexuality. In addition, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence among MSM is 27.6%, 46 times greater than the one in the general population (0.5%). Nevertheless, access to healthcare by MSM may be hampered by stigmatizing attitudes from health facility staff (medical and non-medical). This article describes the h…
HIV infection risk and condom use among sex workers in Senegal
Social desirability bias, which is the tendency to under-report socially undesirable health behaviours, significantly distorts information on sensitive behaviours that is gained from self-reports. As a result, self-reported condom use among high-risk populations is thought to be systematically over-reported, and it is impossible to identify the determinants of condom use. The main objective of the article is to elicit unbiased information on cond…
Nothing but the truth
The study suggests that list experiments are an effective method to improve estimation of the prevalence of sensitive health behaviours
Risk aversion and HIV/Aids
The cost of safe sex
There is some evidence that female sex workers (FSWs) receive greater earnings for providing unprotected sex. In 2003, the landscape of the fight against HIV/AIDS dramatically changed in India with the introduction of Avahan, the largest HIV prevention programme implemented globally. Using a unique, cross-sectional bio-behavioural dataset from 3591 FSWs located in the four Indian states where Avahan was implemented, we estimate the economic loss …
Women’s Empowerment and Wellbeing
We use household survey data from Senegal to model the effects of empowerment within the home on married women’s wellbeing. The estimated effects of empowerment are at least as large as more conventional development indicators, such as household income. The size of the empowerment effect is robust to alternative estimation techniques, including an Instrumental Variables estimator
Determinants of HIV testing among Nigerian couples
In this article we analyse the determinants of HIV testing among Nigerian couples using Demographic and Health Survey data set (2008). This study is motivated by the fact that although there is a strong willingness from the Nigerian Government to examine new HIV preventions approaches such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) and Treatment as Prevention (TasP) for HIV serodiscordant couples, the implementation of such policies would require…
Estimating unbiased economies of scale of HIV prevention projects
The Effect of Women’s Bargaining Power on Child Nutrition in Rural Senegal
The Effect of Women’s Bargaining Power on Child Nutrition in Rural Senegal
Nothing but the truth
The study suggests that list experiments are an effective method to improve estimation of the prevalence of sensitive health behaviours
Risk aversion and HIV/Aids
Estimating unbiased economies of scale of HIV prevention projects
The cost of safe sex
There is some evidence that female sex workers (FSWs) receive greater earnings for providing unprotected sex. In 2003, the landscape of the fight against HIV/AIDS dramatically changed in India with the introduction of Avahan, the largest HIV prevention programme implemented globally. Using a unique, cross-sectional bio-behavioural dataset from 3591 FSWs located in the four Indian states where Avahan was implemented, we estimate the economic loss …
HIV infection risk and condom use among sex workers in Senegal
Social desirability bias, which is the tendency to under-report socially undesirable health behaviours, significantly distorts information on sensitive behaviours that is gained from self-reports. As a result, self-reported condom use among high-risk populations is thought to be systematically over-reported, and it is impossible to identify the determinants of condom use. The main objective of the article is to elicit unbiased information on cond…
The Effect of Women’s Bargaining Power on Child Nutrition in Rural Senegal
Determinants of HIV testing among Nigerian couples
In this article we analyse the determinants of HIV testing among Nigerian couples using Demographic and Health Survey data set (2008). This study is motivated by the fact that although there is a strong willingness from the Nigerian Government to examine new HIV preventions approaches such as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP) and Treatment as Prevention (TasP) for HIV serodiscordant couples, the implementation of such policies would require…
Estimating unbiased economies of scale of HIV prevention projects
Women’s Empowerment and Wellbeing
We use household survey data from Senegal to model the effects of empowerment within the home on married women’s wellbeing. The estimated effects of empowerment are at least as large as more conventional development indicators, such as household income. The size of the empowerment effect is robust to alternative estimation techniques, including an Instrumental Variables estimator
The cost of safe sex
There is some evidence that female sex workers (FSWs) receive greater earnings for providing unprotected sex. In 2003, the landscape of the fight against HIV/AIDS dramatically changed in India with the introduction of Avahan, the largest HIV prevention programme implemented globally. Using a unique, cross-sectional bio-behavioural dataset from 3591 FSWs located in the four Indian states where Avahan was implemented, we estimate the economic loss …
HIV infection risk and condom use among sex workers in Senegal
Social desirability bias, which is the tendency to under-report socially undesirable health behaviours, significantly distorts information on sensitive behaviours that is gained from self-reports. As a result, self-reported condom use among high-risk populations is thought to be systematically over-reported, and it is impossible to identify the determinants of condom use. The main objective of the article is to elicit unbiased information on cond…
Nothing but the truth
The study suggests that list experiments are an effective method to improve estimation of the prevalence of sensitive health behaviours
Risk aversion and HIV/Aids
The long-term effects of free care on birth outcomes
As women in many countries still fail to give birth in facilities due to financial barriers, many see the abolition of user fees as a key step on the path towards universal coverage. We exploited the staggered removal of user charges in Zambia from 2006 to estimate the effect of user fee removal up to five years after the policy change. We used data from the birth histories of two nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys to implem…
From a drought to HIV
Each year there are over 300 natural disasters globally with millions of victims that cost economic losses near USD$100 billion. In the context of climate change, an emerging literature linking extreme weather events to HIV infections suggests that efforts to control the HIV epidemic could be under threat. We used Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data collected during the 2015-2016 harsh drought that affected several areas of Malawi to provide…
Sexuality-based stigma and access to care
Men who have sex with men (MSM) in Senegal face a challenging socio-legal context, marked by homophobia and the illegality of homosexuality. In addition, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence among MSM is 27.6%, 46 times greater than the one in the general population (0.5%). Nevertheless, access to healthcare by MSM may be hampered by stigmatizing attitudes from health facility staff (medical and non-medical). This article describes the h…
Fertility and polygyny
Decision-making about fertility differs between monogamous and polygynous households. In an experiment in Burkina Faso that gives women access to free contraceptives, either alone or with their husband, involving the husband decreases contraceptive use among monogamous women, but not among polygynous women. Where there is co-wife rivalry, it increases contraceptive use. This is consistent with a model where monogamous women have a stronger prefer…
Can Self-affirmation Encourage HIV-Prevention? Evidence from Female Sex Workers in Senegal
We test an intervention aiming to increase condom usage and HIV testing in a stigmatized population at high risk of contracting HIV: female sex workers (FSWs) in Senegal. Some sex work is legal in Senegal, and condoms and HIV tests are freely available to registered FSWs-but FSWs may be reluctant to get tested and use condoms, in part because doing so would entail acknowledging their risk of contracting HIV and potentially expose them to stigma. …
Estimating the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry via indirect elicitation methods
Data from children suggest that the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire is a worrying 38%. However, while surveying children has the potential to reduce sensitivity biases such as social desirability bias, it presents significant ethical dilemmas and may also be associated with other reporting biases, making accurate estimates of child labour difficult. To address this, we collected data from 1741 cocoa producers to …
Public prostitutes and private prostitutes
Women engaging in transactional sex would require equal attention than FSWs in terms of HIV prevention. Like FSWs, they have multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex. They should be considered a 'key population' for HIV prevention. This would improve public health outcomes, suggesting the need to target women engaging in transactional sex on a greater scale than previously attempted in Sub-Saharan Africa
Cost-effectiveness of health insurance among women engaged in transactional sex and impacts on HIV transmission in Cameroon
INTRODUCTION: HIV prevalence disproportionately affects high-risk populations, particularly female sex workers in Africa. Women and girls engaging in transactional sex (WGTS) face similar health risks from unsafe practices, economic vulnerabilities and stigma. However, they are not recognised. METHODS: Using existing literature and data from the POWER randomised controlled trial, we developed a deterministic compartmental model to assess HIV dyna…
Condom use prevalence during the Covid-19 pandemic among female sex workers in Dakar, Senegal
Literature suggests that individuals may trade off health for income in face of an economic shock. Being in a close contact profession, the livelihoods of sex workers were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Few studies exist on whether prevalence of better-renumerated condomless sex increased among this population in low and middle-income countries and discuss its implications on HIV/STI transmission, specifically during pandemic situati…
Insured but unequal
BACKGROUND: Health insurance is central to universal health coverage (UHC), but expanded coverage does not guarantee equitable access for marginalized populations. This study examines how the POWER health insurance programme differently affected women engaged in transactional sex and female sex workers in Yaoundé, Cameroon. METHODS: We conducted qualitative interviews in two independent cross-sectional waves with 42 participants in total includin…
Medicine (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Demography (11 works) · Environmental health (11 works) · Population (10 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Sex work and related issues (9 works) · Family medicine (8 works) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (8 works) · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions (8 works)