Using touch screen audio-CASI to obtain data on sensitive topics

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Abstract

This paper describes a new interview data collection system that uses a laptop personal computer equipped with a touch-sensitive video monitor. The touch-screen-based audio computer-assisted self-interviewing system, or touch screen audio-CASI, enhances the ease of use of conventional audio CASI systems while simultaneously providing the privacy of self-administered questionnaires. We describe touch screen audio-CASI design features and operational characteristics. In addition, we present data from a recent clinic-based experiment indicating that the touch audio-CASI system is stable, robust, and suitable for administering relatively long and complex questionnaires on sensitive topics, including drug use and sexual behaviors associated with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Introduction

In recent years, the technologies available for conducting interviews about sexual behavior, illicit drug use, and other sensitive subjects have been changing rapidly. These new technologies appear to reduce reporting bias, which can have a substantial effect on people's willingness to report activities that are embarrassing, stigmatizing, or illegal. What people may not be willing to admit to a human interviewer, they appear much more likely to report in a more private setting, such as a self-administered questionnaire. However, the depth of information that is required to assess certain high-risk behaviors can make a self-administered questionnaire extremely complex and difficult to complete. Moreover, many individuals who engage in high-risk behaviors have limited literacy skills, which may preclude them from accurately responding to the questions being presented.

An audio computer-assisted self-interviewing, or audio-CASI, system has been developed to address the inadequacies of interviewer-administered or self-administered questionnaires and to increase truthful reporting of sensitive behaviors. Versions of this computer-based system have been implemented in several large-scale surveys. This paper will focus on the most recent version of the system, which uses a touch sensitive video monitor to input responses.

Section snippets

Advantages of the audio-CASI system

Traditionally, written self-administered questionnaires have been the standard interviewing technique for collecting data on drug use, sexual behavior, and other sensitive behaviors. Self-administered questionnaires eliminate the need for respondents to disclose sensitive and possibly incriminating information about themselves to an interviewer. Studies of self-reported drug use, for example, have found that respondents are more likely to report these behaviors in SAQs than in less private

Design features of the touch screen audio-CASI

Architecturally, our touch screen audio-CASI system is a direct outgrowth of the conventional keyboard audio-CASI system. We specifically sought to preserve the traditional audio-CASI design features in the touch screen audio-CASI system. Such features include the aural and visual presentation of the questions and response categories, the use of keys or buttons to enter responses, programming of questionnaires to support automatic execution of skip patterns, as well as range and other data edit

Advantages and disadvantages of touch screen audio-CASI

Touch screen audio-CASI shares most of the advantages provided by conventional audio-CASI systems. However, by replacing the keyboard with a touch sensitive video monitor, touch screen audio-CASI has the potential to enhance data quality in three fundamental ways.

First, strike-area for entering responses is enlarged, thus reducing the likelihood of keying errors by the respondent. In conventional keyboard-based audio-CASI, the size of the key to be pressed approximates the tip of a normal

Implementing touch screen audio-CASI in a clinic population

We drew a convenience sample of 108 patients ages 15–39 years attending a STD Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland; one-half of the respondents were male, one-half were female. Anecdotal information provided by clinic staff indicated that patients often had literacy problems or problems with quantitative issues, and there was some concern whether patients could successfully complete an audio-CASI interview. Although our previous research suggests that respondents are comfortable using the audio-CASI

Conclusion

Touch screen audio-CASI provides several theoretical advantages to conventional keyboard based audio-CASI in obtaining more accurate answers to measures of sensitive behaviors. However, additional studies collecting data from representative populations of sufficient size and in different cultural settings, using both modes with the same instrument, are required to properly assess the potential advantages of the touch screen environment.

The results from our preliminary investigation of the

Acknowledgments

The research reported in this article was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01AI46181-02).

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