Looking Deeper into the HIV Epidemic: A questionnaire for Tracing Sexual Networks (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, 1998, 24 p.): 5. Questionnaire design

Looking Deeper into the HIV Epidemic: A questionnaire for Tracing Sexual Networks (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, 1998, 24 p.)

		(introduction...)
		1. Introduction
		2. The individual questionnaire for evaluation
		3. Risk networks: the need for research in sexual networks
		4. Implications for data collection methods
		5. Questionnaire design
		6. Collecting data
		7. Analysing the data
		8. Future research
		References
		Appendix - Multi-site study : questionnaire I - Men and Women

5. Questionnaire design

Each eligible respondent is asked to report on a list of characteristics about themselves and their partners. No contact tracing is needed, nor are the partners named. Table 1 shows the characteristics asked about in the questionnaire.

Table I - Attributes asked about in the sexual network module

Respondent’s characteristics	Relationship attributes	Partners’ characteristics
Gender	Type of relationship	Gender
Age	Duration of relation	Age
Education	Living arrangement	Education
Literacy	Frequency of sex	Ethnic group
Ethnic group	Use of condoms	Marital status
Religion	Place of first sex	Number of other sexual partners
Place of origin	Duration of relationship before first sex
Place of residence	Ongoing or ended relation
Marital status	Number of sexual acts
Mobility	Exchange of money
Occupation
Age at first marriage
Age at first sex
Number of sexual partners

A key issue is the question of how many partnerships to collect information on. The decision has been to ask respondents about their partnerships in the last 12 months to a maximum of eight relationships, starting with the most recent and going back in time. This is probably a maximum and may be not justified everywhere.

The questionnaire consists of a short form gathering information about the household of the respondent, then questions for the individual her/himself: identification, background characteristics, marriage(s), sexual relations with other partners and questions relating to STDs and other health issues such as contraception. Questions about income level may be added in some settings, although they are usually very sensitive. Other questions useful for prevention programmes might seek to determine where the respondents meet their sexual partners.