Integrating a web-based survey application into Qualtrics to collect risk location data for HIV prevention research

• Published in: AIDS care Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 397 - 403
• Main Author: Rudolph, Abby E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 04.03.2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Application; Built environment; Data collection; Demography; Disease prevention; Drug abuse; Drug use; Feasibility; Health risks; HIV; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Homosexuality, Male; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Internet; Male; Medical research; Missing data; Neighborhoods; Polls & surveys; Prevention; Prevention programs; Preventive medicine; Risk; Risk behavior; Risk taking; Sex; Sexual Behavior; Sexually transmitted diseases; Social environment; STD; Surveys and Questionnaires; Unsafe Sex
• ISSN: 0954-0121; 1360-0451
• DOI: 10.1080/09540121.2021.2008860

Aspects of the physical and social environment play an important role in shaping HIV-related risk/prevention behaviors and access to prevention and treatment services. Here, we describe the feasibility of integrating a web-based survey application to collect risk locations into Qualtrics and compare this approach with a JavaScript-based alternative. Between 2017 and 2018, we enrolled 29 persons living with HIV in Boston Massachusetts to complete an interviewer-administered questionnaire using Qualtrics. Surveys collected demographics; sex/drug use risk behaviors; locations where participants met sex partners, had condomless sex, attended group sex events, and shared a syringe or injection equipment with someone else (up to 10 locations each); and the locations where participants (a) had sex with each sex partner (past 6 months) and (b) used drugs with each drug use partner (past 6 months). Location data were collected using embedded links to an encrypted web-based survey application. Overall, participants provided valid coordinates 93% of the time; when an exact location was not provided, a neighborhood was provided instead, resulting in little missing data. Our findings suggest that this web-based data collection tool (alone or with embedded links in Qualtrics) is a feasible and secure option for collecting risk location data.