Assessments of seropositioning and serosorting relied on participant report, which could have been subject to desirability bias despite attempts to minimize this by utilizing computer assisted self-survey.
At baseline all participants had their weight, height and blood pressure measured, received the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Aim for a Healthy Weight brochure, and completed an audio computer assisted self-interview survey which collected data on demographics, health behaviors, mental health and neighborhood characteristics.
One method that has been studied in a number of small randomized clinical trials or observational studies is computer assisted self interviewing (CASI).
State of the art technology (audio computer assisted self interview and computer assisted self interview) was used to enhance the candor of the respondents.
The use of audio computer assisted self interview in wave I and computer assisted self interview in waves III and IV of Add Health almost surely enhanced the candor of respondents when answering potentially sensitive questions.
There is also a Peruvian developed, web-based "computer assisted self interviewing" system called SISQUAL used for HIV research interviews.
The difference was even larger for an illegal behavior: respondents who used audio computer assisted self interview were 2.84 times more likely to acknowledge that they had used cocaine than respondents who used computer assisted personal interview.
19 Klevens and colleagues compared disclosure to clinicians (8.7%, 4/46) with women's disclosure via audio computer assisted self interviews (A-CASI) (21.3%, 17/80).
In a randomized experiment, researchers 16 found that respondents who used audio computer assisted self interview were 1.46 times more likely to acknowledge that they had oral sex than respondents who used computer assisted personal interview and reported their behavior directly to an interviewer.
21 A computer assisted self-interview behavioural survey will be administered at each study visit over the 2-year period.
Audio computer assisted self-interview (ACASI) is a survey modality that is frequently used in healthcare and clinical research settings to collect patient information.
