title: A Comparison of Web and Telephone Responses From a National HIV and AIDS Survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Response differences to survey questions are known to exist for different modes of questionnaire completion. Previous research has shown that response differences by mode are larger for sensitive and complicated questions. However, it is unknown what effect completion mode may have on HIV and AIDS survey research, which addresses particularly sensitive and stigmatized health issues.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We seek to compare responses between self-selected Web and telephone respondents in terms of social desirability and item nonresponse in a national HIV and AIDS survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey of 2085 people in Canada aged 18 years and older was conducted to explore public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around HIV and AIDS in May 2011. Participants were recruited using random-digit dialing and could select to be interviewed on the telephone or self-complete through the Internet. For this paper, 15 questions considered to be either sensitive, stigma-related, or less-sensitive in nature were assessed to estimate associations between responses and mode of completion. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted for questions with significant (P≤.05) bivariate differences in responses to adjust for sociodemographic factors. As survey mode was not randomly assigned, we created a propensity score variable and included it in our multivariate models to control for mode selection bias.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 81% of participants completed the questionnaire through the Internet, and 19% completed by telephone. Telephone respondents were older, reported less education, had lower incomes, and were more likely from the province of Quebec. Overall, 2 of 13 questions assessed for social desirability and 3 of 15 questions assessed for item nonresponse were significantly associated with choice of mode in the multivariate analysis. For social desirability, Web respondents were more likely than telephone respondents to report more than 1 sexual partner in the past year (fully adjusted odds ratio (OR)=3.65, 95% CI 1.80-7.42) and more likely to have donated to charity in the past year (OR=1.63, 95% CI 1.15-2.29). For item nonresponse, Web respondents were more likely than telephone respondents to have a missing or "don't know" response when asked about: the disease they were most concerned about (OR=3.02, 95% CI 1.67-5.47); if they had ever been tested for HIV (OR=8.04, 95% CI 2.46-26.31); and when rating their level of comfort with shopping at grocery store if the owner was known to have HIV or AIDS (OR=3.11, 95% CI 1.47-6.63).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sociodemographic differences existed between Web and telephone respondents, but for 23 of 28 questions considered in our analysis, there were no significant differences in responses by mode. For surveys with very sensitive health content, such as HIV and AIDS, Web administration may be subject to less social desirability bias but may also have greater item nonresponse for certain questions.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. marcella.jones@mail.utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Marcella K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0609-1188
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Liviana
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2935-1851
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Calzavara
authors.forename: Dan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-751X
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Allman
authors.forename: Catherine A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3075-8229
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Worthington
authors.forename: Mark
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4450-5679
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tyndall
authors.forename: James
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0035-1201
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Iveniuk
keywords: AIDS; HIV; attitudes; community survey; cross-sectional survey; data collection methods; data quality; health attitude; health knowledge; practice; social desirability; survey methods