title: Brief report: methods for collecting sexual behaviour information from South African adolescents--a comparison of paper versus personal digital assistant questionnaires.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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
authors.forename: Heather B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Jaspan
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Flisher
authors.forename: Landon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Myer
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mathews
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Seebregts
authors.forename: Jessica R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Berwick
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Linda-Gail
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Bekker
mesh_terms: 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