Meeting the Behavioural Data Collection Needs of National HIV/AIDS and STD Programmes (Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care Project - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS - United States Agency for International Development, 1998, 41 p.): 2. Why track behaviour?: 2.5 Behavioural data can help explain variations in prevalence

Meeting the Behavioural Data Collection Needs of National HIV/AIDS and STD Programmes (Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care Project - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS - United States Agency for International Development, 1998, 41 p.)

2. Why track behaviour?

		(introduction...)
		2.1 Behavioural data serves as an early warning system for HIV and STDs
		2.2 Behavioural data informs effective programme design and direction
		2.3 Tracking behaviour improves programme evaluation
		2.4 Changes in behaviour help explain changes in HIV prevalence
		2.5 Behavioural data can help explain variations in prevalence

2.5 Behavioural data can help explain variations in prevalence

Although comparisons across regions, cultures, and countries must be made with extreme caution, behavioural data can also help explain differences in levels of infection between one region and another. This is particularly true when indicators of risk behaviour are standardised across all studies and surveys, with the same wording and reference periods.