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Mobile Phone Questionnaires for Sexual Risk Data Collection Among Young Women in Soweto, South Africa

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Abstract

Recall and social desirability bias undermine self-report of paper-and-pencil questionnaires. Mobile phone questionnaires may overcome these challenges. We assessed and compared sexual risk behavior reporting via in-clinic paper-and-pencil and mobile phone questionnaires. HVTN 915 was a prospective cohort study of 50 adult women in Soweto, who completed daily mobile phone, and eight interviewer-administered in-clinic questionnaires over 12 weeks to assess sexual risk. Daily mobile phone response rates were 82% (n = 3486/4500); 45% (n = 1565/3486) reported vaginal sex (median sex acts 2 (IQR: 1–3)) within 24 h and 40% (n = 618/1565) consistent condom. Vaginal sex reporting was significantly higher via mobile phone across all visits (p < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in condom use reporting by mobile phone and in-clinic paper-based questionnaires across all visits (p = 0.5134). The results show high adherence and reporting of sex on the mobile phone questionnaire. We demonstrate feasibility in collecting mobile phone sexual risk data.

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Notes

  1. This is the sex frequency as indicated at the start of the sentence. At each follow-up visit, the reported sex frequencies dropped by 0.0418.

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Funding

The authors wish to thank the trial participants, the HVTN core, the Soweto Clinical Research Site study team, and iKapadata. The HVTN 915 study was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) U.S. Public Health Service Grants UM1 AI068614 [LOC: HIV Vaccine Trials Network], UM1 AI068635 [SDMC: HIV Vaccine Trials Network], UM1 AI068618 [HVTN Laboratory Center] and UM1 AI069453 [Soweto-Bara Clinical Research Site]. Dr. Janan Dietrich received a Thuthuka post Ph.D. funding award (2014–2016) from the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). Any opinion, findings, conclusion or recommendation expressed in this material is solely the responsibility of the authors, and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAID, National Institutes of Health (NIH), or SA NRF. Any opinion, finding, conclusion or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the authors and the SA NRF does not accept any liability in this regard.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, PO BOX 114, Diepkloof, Soweto, Johannesburg, 1864, South Africa

    Janan J. Dietrich, Erica Lazarus, Stefanie Hornschuh, Kennedy Otwombe, Fatima Laher & Glenda E. Gray

  2. Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Michele Andrasik, Cecilia Morgan, Abby J. Isaacs, Yunda Huang, James G. Kublin & Glenda E. Gray

  3. Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    James G. Kublin

  4. South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa

    Glenda E. Gray

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  1. Janan J. Dietrich
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  2. Erica Lazarus
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Correspondence to Janan J. Dietrich.

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This study involved human participants. All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the HVTN, the University of the Witwatersrand and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Dietrich, J.J., Lazarus, E., Andrasik, M. et al. Mobile Phone Questionnaires for Sexual Risk Data Collection Among Young Women in Soweto, South Africa. AIDS Behav 22, 2312–2321 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2080-y

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