THE PROMISE OF INTEGRATED REPRESENTATIVE SURVEYS ABOUT SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED DISEASES AND BEHAVIOR

Background: It has been difficult to conduct representative surveys me asuring both sexually transmitted disease prevalence and behavioral da ta, This article reviews the literature, describes a recent pretest of the feasibility of integrated surveys, and discusses the potential im plications, Methods: Several national surveys are reviewed, including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, National Health and Social Life Survey, and National Survey of Adolescent Males, The 1994 pretest of the National Survey of Adolescent Males collected urin e specimens of male respondents, which were tested for Chlamydia trach omatis using ligase and polymerase chain reaction tests, Results: Ther e have not been any prior national surveys that collect clinical measu res of STD infection and detailed behavioral data, In the pretest, 85% of the eligible interview respondents provided a urine specimen, Of t hose tested, 6% were positive for C. trachomatis. Conclusions: Combini ng behavioral surveys with collection of urine specimens for STD testi ng in representative samples is feasible, However, STD testing adds ne w operational and ethical challenges to the conduct of household surve ys.