Can Young Adults Accurately Report Sexual Partnership Dates? Results from the Project on Partner Dynamics

Background: 

Partner notification programs and research studies routinely collect sexual partnership dates, but reporting accuracy is constrained by imprecision, memory failure, and recall bias. Magnitude of inaccuracy and its correlates have implications for collecting and interpreting sexual behavior data.

Methods:

We examined inter-partner agreement (IPA) and partner-dyad agreement (PDA) among 300 heterosexual respondents (150 dyads) enrolled in The Project on Partner Dynamics. Dates of first and last sex  within each dyad were collected through interviews with each partner and from a joint interview with the dyad. . PDA was calculated by comparing individual respondent reports with the consensus from the joint interview. Linear regression models identified factors associated with IPA.

Results:

The average age of respondents was 24. Most dyads (37.5%) were <1 year in duration, and most respondents (52.4% and 58.7% of index and partner respondents) reported exclusively dating their partner. For date of first sex, IPA to 1-, 30-, 90-, and 365-day IPA was, respectively, 6.1%, 44.6%, 64.5%, and 81.8%; PDA was 5.3%, 40.0%, 60.2%, and 77.4%. For last sex, 1-, 30-, 90-, and 365- day IPA was, respectively, 32.7%, 94.7%, 98.7%, and 100.0%; PDA was 27.8%, 88.0%, 98.4%, and 98.4%. Greater time between interviews dates, and drug and alcohol use, were associated with lower agreement for first sex; alcohol and other drug use was associated with lower agreement for last sex.

Conclusions: 

Partners’ agreement on dates was low. Methods to increase accuracy of dates could influence both research and practice.