Measurement of self-reported HIV risk behaviors in injection drug users: Comparison of standard versus timeline follow-back administration procedures

This study compares the frequencies of retrospective self-reported HIV high-risk drug use and sexual behaviors in 127 out-of-treatment injection drug users using the HIV Risk Questionnaire (HRQ) across two administration methods: (a) a brief standard quantity–frequency approach covering the past 30 days and (b) a lengthier timeline follow-back (TLFB) procedure for improving recall. The two procedures produced similar frequencies of risk behavior across most items (80%) and good intra- and interclass correlation coefficients. The TLFB, however, resulted in higher frequencies for two risk behavior questions—sharing of any drug injection equipment and having any type of unprotected sex. The TLFB is a well-established procedure for retrospective assessment of HIV risk behavior and a good choice when precision in measuring these behaviors is a primary focus of the work. In contrast, the brief HRQ-Standard interview procedure appears to be a reasonable choice for clinical, research, and health-related surveys where the primary focus is broader than HIV risk behavior.