Abstract
The emergence of Internet technology provides a unique opportunity to collect real-time information on the sexual behaviors of persons at risk for HIV. However, relatively little is known of the utility and reliability of web diaries. To address this gap, 45 predominantly Caucasian and gay, Internet-using men who have sex with men completed a 4-week daily web diary of their sexual behaviors. Afterward, participants completed an online retrospective recall survey (RRS) of their sexual activities during the diary period and satisfaction ratings of the web diary method. Overall, web diary estimates of sexual behaviors differed from the RRS, with a tendency to over-report on the latter with the exception of insertive unprotected anal intercourse. Additionally, compliance rates were high and there was some evidence for reactivity. Participants evaluated the web diary method positively. Web diaries appear to be a promising tool for collecting information on health behaviors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bailey, S. L., Gao, W., & Clark, D. B. (2006). Diary study of substance use and unsafe sex among adolescents with substance use disorders. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38(3), 297.e13–297.e20.
Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Berk, R., Abramson, P. R., & Okami, P. (1995). Sexual activities as told in surveys. In P. R. Abramson & S. D. Pinkerton (Eds.), Sexual nature, sexual culture (pp. 371–386). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Blalock, H. M. (1979). Social statistics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bolger, N., Davis, A., & Eshkol, R. (2003). Diary methods: Capturing life as it is lived. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 579–616.
Catania, J. A., Gibson, D. R., Chitwood, D. D., & Coates, T. J. (1990). Methodological problems in AIDS behavior research: Influences on measurement error and participation bias in studies of sexual behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 339–362.
Centers for Disease Control, Prevention (CDC). (2004). High-risk sexual behavior by HIV-positive men who have sex with men—16 sites, United States, 2000–2002. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 53(38), 891–894.
Coxon, A. P. M. (1999). Parallel accounts? Discrepancies between self-report (diary) and recall (questionnaire) measures of the same sexual behavior. AIDS Care, 11(2), 221–234.
Croyle, R., & Loftus, E. F. (1997). Concordance between self-report questionnaires and coital diaries for women with sexually transmitted infections. In J. Bancroft (Ed.), Researching sexual behavior (pp. 237–249). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Downey, L., Ryan, R., Roffman, R., & Kulich, M. (1995). How could I forget? Inaccurate memories of sexually intimate moments. The Journal of Sex Research, 32(3), 177–191.
Durant, L. E., & Carey, M. P. (2000). Self-administered questionnaires versus face-to-face interviews in assessing sexual behavior in young women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 29, 309–322.
Ekstrand, M., Stall, R., Paul, J. P., Osmond, D. H., & Coates, T. (1999). Gay men report high rates of unprotected anal sex with partners of unknown or disconcordant HIV status. AIDS, 13, 1525–1533.
Estes, D., Chandler, M., Horvath, K., & Backus, D. W. (2003). American and British college students’ epistemological beliefs about research on psychological and biological development. Applied Developmental Psychology, 174, 1–18.
Feldman-Barrett, L., & Barret, D. J. (2001). An introduction to computerized experience sampling in psychology. Social Science Computer Review, 19(2), 175–185.
Garry, M., Sharman, S. J., Feldman, J., Marlatt, G. A., & Loftus, E. F. (2002). Examining memory for heterosexual college students’ sexual experiences using an electronic mail diary. Health Psychology, 21(6), 629–634.
Gillmore, M. R., Gaylord, J., Hartway, J., Hoppe, M. J., Morrison, D. M., Leigh, B. C., et al. (2001). Daily data collection of sexual and other health-related behaviors. The Journal of Sex Research, 38(1), 35–42.
Gillmore, M. R., Morrison, D. M., Leigh, B. C., Hoppe, M. J., Gaylord, J., & Rainey, D. T. (2002). Does “high = high risk?” An event-based analysis of the relationship between substance use and unprotected anal sex among gay and bisexual men. AIDS and Behavior, 6(4), 361–370.
Green, A. S., Rafaeli, E., Bolger, N., Schrout, P. E., & Reis, H. T. (2006). Paper or plastic: Data equivalence in paper and electronic diaries. Psychological Methods, 11(1), 87–105.
Hogg, R. S., Weber, A. E., Chan, K., Martindale, S., Cook, D., Miller, M. L., et al. (2001). Increasing incidence of HIV infections among young gay and bisexual men in Vancouver. AIDS, 15(10), 1321–1322.
Horn, P. A., & Brigham, T.A. (1996). A self-management approach to reducing AIDS risk in sexually active heterosexual college students. Behavior and Social Issues, 6, 3–21.
Janssen, M., De Wit, J., Stroebe, W., & Van Griensven, F. (2000). Educational status and risk of HIV in young gay men. Journal of Health Psychology, 5(4), 487–499.
Katz, M. H., McFarland, W., Guillin, V., Fenstersheib, M., Shaw, M., Kellogg, T., et al. (1998). Continuing high prevalence of HIV and risk behaviors among young men who have sex with men: The young men’s survey in the San Francisco Bay area in 1992 to 1993 and in 1994 to 1995. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes and Human Retrovirology, 19, 178–181.
Koblin, B. A., Torian, L. V., Guilin, V., Ren, L., MacKellar, D. A., & Valleroy, L. A. (2000). High prevalence of HIV infection among young gay men who have sex with men in New York City. AIDS, 14, 1793–1800.
Leigh, B. C. (1993). Alcohol consumption and sexual activity as reported with a diary technique. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102(3), 490–493.
Leigh, B. C., Gillmore, M. R., & Morrison, D. M. (1998). Comparison of diary and retrospective measures for recording alcohol consumption and sexual activity. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 51, 119–127.
McLaws, M.-L., Oldenburg, B., Ross, M. W., & Cooper, D. A. (1990). Sexual behaviour in AIDS-related research: Reliability and validity of recall and diary measures. The Journal of Sex Research, 27(2), 265–281.
Miller, E. T., Neal, D. J., Roberts, L. J., Baer, J. S., Cressler, S. O., Metrik, J., et al. (2002). Test–retest reliability of alcohol measures: Is there a difference between Internet-based assessment and traditional methods? Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16, 56–63.
Mills, T. C., Stall, R., Pollack, L. M., Paul, J. P., Binson, D., Canchola, J. A., et al. (2001). Health-related characteristics of men who have sex with men: A comparison of those living in “gay ghettos” with those living elsewhere. American Journal of Public Health, 91(6), 980–983.
Minichiello, V., Marino, R., Khan, M. A., & Browne, J. (2003). Alcohol and drug use in Australian male sex workers: It’s relationship to the safety outcome of the sex encounter. AIDS Care, 15(4), 549–561.
Morrison, D. M., Leigh, B. C., & Gillmore, M. R. (1999). Daily data collection: A comparison of three methods. Journal of Sex Research, 36, 76–81.
Mustanski, B. S. (2004). The relationship between mood and sexual interest, behavior, and risk-taking. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering 65(5-B), p. 2640.
Okami, P. (2002). Dear diary: A useful but imperfect method. In M. W. Wiederman, &B. E. Whitley Jr (Eds.), Handbook for conducting research on human sexuality (pp. 195–208). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Perrine, M. W. B., & Schroder, K. E. E. (2005). How many drinks did you have on September 11, 2001? Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 66, 536–544.
Reis, H. T., & Gable, S. L. (2000). Event sampling and other methods for studying everyday experience. In H. T. Reis & C. M. Judd (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (pp. 190–222). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Schroder, K. E. E., Carey, M. P., & Vanable, P. A. (2003). Methodological challenges in research on sexual risk behavior: II. Accuracy of self-reports. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 26, 104–123.
Skowronski, J. J., Betz, A. L., Thompson, C. P., & Shannon, L. (1991). Social memory in everyday life: Recall of self-events and other-events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(6), 831–843.
Stone, A. A., & Shiffman, S. (1994). Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in behavioral medicine. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 16, 199–202.
Stopka, T. J., Springer, K. W., Khoshnood, K., Shaw, S., & Singer, M. (2004). Writing about risk: Use of daily diaries in understanding drug-user risk behaviors. AIDS and Behavior, 8(1), 73–85.
Tennen, H., Affleck, G., Armeli, S., & Carney, M. A. (2000). A daily process approach to coping: Linking theory, research, and practice. American Psychologist, 55, 626–636.
Tourangeau, R. (2004). Survey research and societal change. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 775–801.
Tourangeau, R., & Smith, T. W. (1998). Asking sensitive questions: The impact of data collection mode, question format, and question context. Public Opinion Quarterly, 60, 275–304.
Usdan, S. L., Schumacher, J. E., & Bernhardt, J. M. (2004). Impaired driving behaviors among college students: A comparison of web-based daily assessment and retrospective timeline followback. Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, 48, 34–50.
Weinhardt, L. S., & Carey, M. P. (2000). Does alcohol lead to sexual risk behavior? Findings from event-level research. Annual Review of Sex Research, 11, 125–158.
Wiederman, M. W. (2002). Reliability and validity of measurement. In M. W. Wiederman, &B. Whitley (Eds.), Handbook for conducting research on human sexuality. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wright, K. B. (2005). Researching Internet-based populations: Advantages and disadvantages of online survey research, online questionnaire authoring software packages, and web survey services. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10, Article 11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/wright.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Horvath, K.J., Beadnell, B. & Bowen, A.M. A Daily Web Diary of the Sexual Experiences of Men who have Sex with Men: Comparisons with a Retrospective Recall Survey. AIDS Behav 11, 537–548 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-007-9206-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-007-9206-y