The use of supplementary techniques to increase recall of sex partners in a network-based research study in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate supplementary cueing as a technique to increase recall of sex partners in the year before the interview.


OBJECTIVE
Recall of partners beyond those freely recalled.


METHODS
We asked volunteers at a clinic in Brazil to freely recall all regular and casual sex partners in the year before the interview. Then, we used a name generator developed by Brewer et al. in the United States, in which volunteers were prompted with 4 types of cues: location, alphabetic, social role, and network. We calculated different measures to evaluate the technique and analyzed the associations between reporting any additional partner and demographic characteristics.


RESULTS
Among volunteers reporting 2 or more sexual partners (n = 590), 41 (7%) recalled 1 or more additional partners by using the supplementary technique, with 105 partners of 2090 (5%) recalled only after using the cues. For volunteers reporting 4 or more sexual partners (n = 193), 34 (18%) recalled 1 or more additional partners by using the supplementary technique, and 98 of 1177 (8%) of their sexual partners were recalled after using the cues. Men were less likely than women to report sex partners after prompting with the social role cues (OR 0.09), and overall the combined techniques were slightly less effective for older individuals (OR 0.95).


CONCLUSIONS
The cue technique can improve sexual partners' recall in cultural contexts different than the United States, mainly for individuals already reporting several partners before the cue.
Périssé
André R S
AR
Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA. aperisse@ensp.fiocruz.br
Langenberg
Patricia
P
Hungerford
Laura
L
Boulay
Marc
M
Charurat
Man
M
Schechter
Mauro
M
Blattner
William
W
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D016358:Contact Tracing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D011477:Sex Work; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*