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Conducting Internet-Based HIV/STD Prevention Survey Research: Considerations in Design and Evaluation

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to advance rigorous Internet-based HIV/STD Prevention quantitative research by providing guidance to fellow researchers, faculty supervising graduates, human subjects’ committees, and review groups about some of the most common and challenging questions about Internet-based HIV prevention quantitative research. The authors represent several research groups who have gained experience conducting some of the first Internet-based HIV/STD prevention quantitative surveys in the US and elsewhere. Sixteen questions specific to Internet-based HIV prevention survey research are identified. To aid rigorous development and review of applications, these questions are organized around six common criteria used in federal review groups in the US: significance, innovation, approach (broken down further by research design, formative development, procedures, sampling considerations, and data collection); investigator, environment and human subjects’ issues. Strategies promoting minority participant recruitment, minimizing attrition, validating participants, and compensating participants are discussed. Throughout, the implications on budget and realistic timetabling are identified.

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Acknowledgments

The conception, planning, and development of this article at every stage was the work of Willo Pequegnat, PhD, project officer at the National Institute of Mental Health. It was she who initially recognized the importance of bringing together some leading researchers in Internet-based HIV prevention survey research to identify common challenges, methods, and dilemmas facing the field. She then facilitated a number of meetings which ultimately resulted in this manuscript. In addition to Dr Pequegnat, we gratefully acknowledge other National Institutes of Health staff for supporting HIV/STD prevention Internet-based survey research and for assisting in the development of this article. We also wish to thank Dr Anne Marie Weber-Main at the University of Minnesota for her critical review of earlier manuscript drafts.

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Pequegnat, W., Rosser, B.R.S., Bowen, A.M. et al. Conducting Internet-Based HIV/STD Prevention Survey Research: Considerations in Design and Evaluation. AIDS Behav 11, 505–521 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-006-9172-9

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