Bias in Self-Reported Condom Use: Association Between Over-Reported Condom Use & Syphilis in a Three-Site Study in China

This study examined over-reporting bias in self-reported condom use and assessed its association with syphilis. A survey was conducted among 1245 female sex workers (FSWs) in three cities in China. Respondent's over-reported condom use was defined as reporting no unprotected sex for the past 24 h but testing positive for prostate specific antigen. 

The proportion of prevalent syphilis and active syphilis was 23 and 10 % respectively among FSWs. The proportion of over-reported condom use with sex clients only was 27-45 % among the three study sites. The proportion of over-reported condom use with all sex partners (clients, husbands, or boyfriends) was 26-46 %. FSWs who had active or prevalent syphilis were more likely to over report condom use. 

Self-reported condom use may not be a valid tool to measure the efficacy of HIV/STI intervention because the bias is associated with the outcome measure, i.e., syphilis.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/uxL4Nx

By:   Liu H1, Morisky DE2, Lin X3, Ma E4, Jiang B5, Yin Y6.

• 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, 2234 SPH Building, College Park, MD, 20742, USA. hliu1210@umd.edu.
• 2Department of Community Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
• 3Department of AIDS Prevention, Nanning Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
• 4Department of AIDS Prevention, Hefei Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Hefei, Anhui, China.
• 5Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
• 6National Reference Lab for STDs, China National Centre for STD Control, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. 

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv insight

And: http://twitter.com/Prison Health