Behavioural Surveillance Surveys - The Wisdom of Whores

Filters are also instructions for the interviewer. Filters instruct the interviewer to check the
response to a previous question, and then provide the interviewer with the appropriate instructions
to continue with the interview. For example:
Q401 FILTER : CHECK Q305
DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH
HAS SEX WITH REGULAR REGULAR PARTNER [__] → Q501
` PARTNER DURING PAST 12 DURING PAST 12 →
MONTHS .... [___]
MONTHS
↓
As stated earlier, responses are recorded in the third column of the questionnaire and are not to
be read aloud unless you are instructed to do so by the phrase READ OUT.
Column four contains the instructions for skipping over questions that might be inappropriate
under certain circumstances. Skip instructions appear as arrows followed by question numbers.
In the example below, if a respondent has never been to school, the interviewer skips over two
additional questions related to school attendance:
Q104 Have you ever attended school ? YES 1
NO 2 → Q107
NO RESPONSE 3
Interviewers must pay particular attention to the skip instructions in order to collect the appropriate
information and to avoid asking irrelevant or inappropriate questions.
Recording responses :
Below are instructions for recording responses to the various types of questions in this questionnaire.
In general, every question must contain a mark EXCEPT if it has been skipped according to
the skip instructions. If the respondent does not know the answer or does not remember, mark the
appropriate category. If the respondent refuses to answer the question, mark NO RESPONSE.
Pre-coded Questions. Pre-coded questions are questions for which the possible responses/answers
are written in the questionnaire. To record a response/answer, the interviewer simply circles the
appropriate code. Unless explicit instructions are given in the question column, the interviewer
records only one response for each question.
Q110 During the last 12 months have you been YES 1
away from this community for one NO 2
continuous month or more? DON’T KNOW 3
NO RESPONSE 4
290
A PPEN DI X 2 B EHAV I OR A L SURV EI L L A NC E S U R V EY S