In AIDS research, relatively little attention has been paid to reliability of self-report of drug users. The authors examined the test-retest reliability of the Risk Behavior Assessment (NIDA, 1991) questionnaire. This structured-interview questionnaire was administered twice to 196 drug users in 5 cities over a 48-hr period. Findings indicated that respondents consistently self-report drug use, injection practices, and sexual behaviors; discrepancies do not appear to reflect systematic decreases or increases in self-report; unreliability is associated with poorly worded questions and respondent characteristics; and discrepant reports warrant attention in analysis and interpretation of data. Measurement error has implications for estimating risks, understanding relationships between behavior and HIV transmission, and interpreting change after interventions. Items with low reliability have been revised, and further reliability studies are examining whether revisions have led to improved reliability.During the first decade of the AIDS epidemic, many researchers have relied on interviewer-
This study examined the reliability and validity of the Risk Behavior Assessment, a structured interview questionnaire designed to evaluate drug use and sexual HIV risk behaviors. Participants were 218 drug users currently not in treatment who completed the RBA two times over a 48-hour period and gave urine samples on both occasions. We examined internal consistency and test-retest reliability and found that, overall, drug users reliably report drug use and sexual behavior, although the reliability of reports of specific needle practice and sexual behavior items was somewhat lower. Validity results indicated that drug users' accurately report use of cocaine and opiates. These findings indicate that this self-report questionnaire, when administered by trained interviewers, reliably measures HIV risk behaviors in a drug-using population and provides a valid assessment of recent drug use.
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