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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Maria Villarroel, MA, Charles F. Turner, PhD, Elizabeth Eggleston, PhD, Alia A. Al-Tayyib, BA, and Susan M. Rogers, PhD. Health and Behavior Measurement Program, Research Triangle Institute, 1615 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202-728-2470, mvillarroel@rti.org
The onset of the HIV epidemic focused attention on the paucity of available information on the prevalence of male-male sexual behaviors in the USA (1). Since 1989 (2), there has been a steady stream of population surveys filling this gap (e.g., 3-5), and some studies providing parallel information for females. The 1999-2000 National STD and Behavior Measurement Experiment (NSBME) tested the impact of survey interview mode on the reporting of same-gender sexual contacts (and other sensitive topics) in probability samples of U.S. and Baltimore adults aged 18-45 (Ns=1,532 and 742 ). Respondents were randomly assigned to receive either a standard interviewer-administered telephone survey or a private computer-administered survey using T-ACASI (telephone audio computer-administered self interviewing) (6). NSBME respondents were 1.6 to 1.8 times more likely to report same-gender experiences, genital contact, and genital contact in the past year in a T-ACASI interview (adjusted ORs, all Ps < .05). The impact of T-ACASI was significantly stronger when children lived in the household (OR=3.0), and significantly weaker in locales thought to be more tolerant of same-sex relationships (e.g., major metropolitan areas, OR=1.2). Our T-ACASI estimate of the prevalence of female-female genital contact in the past year (4.6%) is substantially higher than that reported by Laumann et al. (2) in 1994 (1.3%, ages 18-59). Our analysis of the 1988-2000 General Social Survey (7) and our 1999-2000 NSBME estimate suggest that a substantial increase occurred in reported female-female sexual contacts during the late 1990s.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the talk, participants will be able to
Keywords: Gender, Computer-Assisted
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.