Brief report: methods for collecting sexual behaviour information from South African adolescents--a comparison of paper versus personal digital assistant questionnaires.
Reporting bias in adolescent behavioural research may be overcome with the use of personal digital assistants (PDA) or other computer based technologies. However, there is little insight into the use of these tools among adolescents in low resource settings. We compared self-administered paper questionnaires with PDA questionnaires to collect sexual behaviour data from a sample of 11-19 year olds living in a periurban, Xhosa-speaking community in South Africa. There was a high level of agreement between sexual risk behaviour data collected via each method (kappas> or = 0.50). Data collected from the PDA questionnaires were more complete. Subjectively, adolescents found the use of PDA to be simple and confidential. PDA may be a useful method to collect sensitive, self-reported information from adolescents in resource-limited settings.
Jaspan
Heather B
HB
Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town Faculty of Health Sciences, PO Box 13801 Mowbray 7705, South Africa. Heather.jaspan@hiv-research.org.za
Flisher
Alan J
AJ
Myer
Landon
L
Mathews
Catherine
C
Seebregts
Chris
C
Berwick
Jessica R
JR
Wood
Robin
R
Bekker
Linda-Gail
LG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D013019:South Africa; D014584:User-Computer Interface