Behavioural Surveillance Surveys - The Wisdom of Whores

Table 1 : Examples of respondent groups selected for BSS, various countries
Cambodia Kenya Indonesia Senegal Thailand
Female
Sex workers
Beer vendors
Working women
High paid sex workers
Low paid sex workers
Youth
Brothel-based sex
workers
Non brothel-based
sex workers
Registered sex
workers
University students
Secondary school
students
Domestic house
keepers
Women in income-
Generating groups
Direct sex workers
Indirect sex workers
Factory workers
Vocational students
Office workers
Male
Military/police
Motorcycle drivers
Vocational students
Bus drivers
Youth
Truck drivers
Sailors/seaport
workers
University students
Secondary school
students
Truck drivers
Apprentices in the
informal sector
Workers
Army conscripts
Factory workers
Vocational students
If early field tests suggest these criteria
cannot be met, then a re-think of respondent
groups will be necessary. For example, single
female vocational students in one large city
exhibited very low levels of sexual activity.
Sample sizes of several thousand would have
been required to detect significant changes in
sexual practices and would therefore have
made the BSS unmanageable and unaffordable.
Defining potential respondents:
eligibility criteria
Defining the respondent group is not
always easy. While many respondent groups
will be defined by characteristics that relate
directly to their risk behavior, it is important
that the definition does not cause people
to drop out of the group if they adopt
safer behaviors in response to prevention
campaigns. It may not, for example,
be desirable to set “anal sex in the last 12
months” as an inclusion criterion for a survey
of men who have sex with men. If men
respond to HIV prevention campaigns by
switching to less dangerous sexual practices
in their relations with other men, they will
be excluded from future surveys and the
prevention success will go unrecorded.
Together, the working group on surveillance
and other partners will have to decide on a
mix of respondent groups which is feasible
and best matches epidemiological information
needs, while meeting the concerns of all
interested parties to the extent possible.
Table 1 shows some of the choices made
by countries so far.
B EHAV I OR A L S U R V EI L L A NC E SURV EY S CHAPTER 3
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