title: Assessing the validity of a single-item HIV risk stage-of-change measure.
abstract: This study examined the validity of a single-item measure of HIV risk stage of change that HIV prevention contractors were required to collect by the California State Office of AIDS. The single-item measure was compared to the more conventional University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA). Participants were members of Los Angeles County-defined behavioral risk groups recruited from a mobile HIV testing program (N = 123). The study found low correspondence between participants' stage of change on the single-item and the URICA, suggesting that they do not assess the same construct, and that the single item may not provide a valid measure. The current data suggests that the single-item measure should be revised or abandoned in favor of more conventional stage-of-change measures.
authors.affiliation: California State University, Long Beach, CA 90813, USA.
authors.forename: Lucy E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Napper
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Branson
authors.forename: Dennis G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Grace L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: Michelle M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Wood
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires