The DHS Program

Results of the Pilot Survey of an Experimental Module of Sexual Activity Questions (English) 

Document Type

Methodological Reports

Publication Topic(s)

HIV/AIDS

Country(s)

Haiti

Survey

Haiti Special, 2013

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Fishel, Joy D., and Yodit Bekele. 2014. Results of the Pilot Survey of an Experimental Module of Sexual Activity Questions. DHS Methodological Reports No. 8. Rockville, Maryland, USA: ICF International.

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Publication Date

July 2014

Publication ID

MR8

Abstract:

The DHS Program conducted a pilot survey to investigate whether a revision of the standard set of questions on sexual activity would result in improved measurement of key sexual activity indicators, including extramarital sexual partners among women and sex with paid sex workers among men. The pilot survey, referred to as the 2013 Haiti Sexual Activity Pilot Survey (HSAPS), was conducted in Haiti and included a reorganized module on marriage and sexual activity. The module included questions similar to those used in the standard DHS questionnaires, but was organized by type of sexual partner, based on the respondent’s marital status. The pilot survey included 1,793 households, and interviewed 2,033 women and 1,696 men age 15- 49. Results of the HSAPS were compared with the data from the 2012 Haiti DHS (HDHS) to determine if the measures of sexual activity obtained with the pilot survey questionnaires differed from those obtained in the 2012 HDHS, which fielded questionnaires incorporating the standard sections on marriage and sexual activity. The 2013 HSAPS did not find a meaningful or statistically significant difference in the percentage of respondents reporting multiple sexual partners in the previous 12 months compared with the 2012 HDHS, though the pilot questionnaires did collect some useful information about paid sex partners. In light of the fact that the revised module on sexual behavior does not appear to capture better reporting on the number of recent sexual partners, the DHS Program recommends against adopting the pilot module in the standard questionnaires.