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Background: Control programs for Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs) typically focus on increasing awareness of risks associated with different forms of sexual contact, and pay little attention to how or why people may link RTIs to other features of their physical or social environments. This paper describes how women in a peri-urban pueblo joven located in the coastal desert surrounding Lima, Peru conceptualize the links between RTIs, sexual behaviour, personal hygiene, and the adverse environment in which they live. Methods: We combined qualitative interviews and a participatory voting exercise to examine social and physical environmental influences on RTIs and gynaecologic symptom interpretation. Results: Knowledge of RTIs in general was limited, although knowledge of AIDS was higher. Perceived causes of RTIs fell into three categories: sexual contact with infected persons, personal hygiene and exposure to the contaminated physical environment, with AIDS clearly related to sexual contact. The adverse environment is thought to be a major contributor to vaginal discharge, "inflamed ovaries" and urinary tract infection. The more remote parts of this periurban squatter settlement, characterized by blowing sand and dust and limited access to clean water, are thought to exhibit higher rates of RTIs as a direct result of the adverse environment found there. Stigma associated with RTIs often keeps women from seeking care or obtaining information about gynaecologic symptoms, and favours explanations that avoid mention of sexual practices. Conclusion: The discrepancy between demonstrated disease risk factors and personal explanations influenced by local environmental conditions and RTI-related stigma poses a challenge for prevention programs. Effective interventions need to take local understandings of RTIs into account as they engage in dialogue with communities about prevention and treatment of RTIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Internal migration, a consequence of the demographic transition towards urbanization driven by globalization, represents a particular public health challenge. Change in residence from one sociocultural geographic context to another, with not only economic implications, but also changes in women's long-established relationships of family interdependence, influences gender relations and can influence Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against women. Different migratory trajectories may be related to IPV. The aim of this study was to identify the association between internal migration and physical and/or sexual violence against women in the last 12 months.Methods: A secondary analytical cross-sectional analysis of the publicly accessible 2015-2017 Demographic and Family Health Survey (DHS) was performed. The outcome variable was reported physical and/or sexual violence inflicted by the partner (IPV) during the last 12 months. Exposure variable was internal migration, operationalized from three questions: current place of residence, principal place of residence before 12 years of age and number of years of residence in the current place. Migrants were classified as those who reported having lived for 5 years or more in the current location and were categorized as rural-rural migrants, urban-urban migrants, urban-rural migrants and rural-urban migrants, recent migrants and nonmigrants those who resided in the same place all their lives. To identify the association between internal migration and physical violence, a generalized linear model (GLM) of the family and the log Poisson link log option was used, and the results are presented as prevalence ratios (PRs). A crude model and a model adjusted for confounding variables were performed.Results: Rural-urban migrant women had a 15.0% higher probability of experiencing IPV than nonmigrant women (PRa 1.15, 95% CI 1.03-1.29, p = 0.015), while the probability of experiencing IPV in the last 12 months for urban-rural, rural-rural,urban-urban migrantand recent migrant women was not significantly different from that of nonmigrant women.Conclusion: Rural-urban migration among women of childbearing age is a factor associated with a higher probability of IPV in the last 12 months. The identification of women with this rural-urban migration pattern could help prioritize those that may experience a greater probability of physical and/or sexual violence in Peru, it must be studied if this pattern is the same in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]