When Do Simpler Sexual Behavior Data Collection Techniques Suffice?

Steven D. Pinkerton, Eric G. Benotsch and John Mikytuck
Additional contact information
Steven D. Pinkerton: Medical College of Wisconsin
Eric G. Benotsch: University of Colorado at Denver & Health Sciences Center
John Mikytuck: AIDS Help, Inc.

Evaluation Review, 2007, vol. 31, issue 4, 401-412

Abstract: The “gold standard†for evaluating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention programs is a partner-by-partner sexual behavior assessment that elicits information about each sex partner and the activities engaged in with that partner. When collection of detailed partner-by-partner data is not feasible, aggregate data (e.g., total numbers of partners and acts of various types) must suffice. Lack of specificity in the primary data often translates into uncertainty in modeled outcomes, such as participants' risk of HIV acquisition. To our knowledge, no previous study has attempted to quantify this uncertainty. The results of the present analysis of the risk of HIV acquisition by men vacationing in Key West indicate that the use of aggregate rather than partner-by-partner data introduced relatively little uncertainty into the HIV risk estimates. Collection of aggregate data is a viable alternative to detailed partner-by-partner data, at least in some circumstances.

Keywords: HIV prevention; evaluation; modeling; sexual behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X07300237 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:evarev:v:31:y:2007:i:4:p:401-412

DOI: 10.1177/0193841X07300237

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Evaluation Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().