Because of a dearth of research on reporting biases in the measurement
of HIV-related sexual and drug use behaviors in older populations, it
is frequently assumed that methodological findings of research conduc
ted with younger populations will generalize to older respondents. In
this study, estimates of the effect of the experimental manipulation o
f interview mode (interviewer administered vs, self-administered) were
derived separately for three age strata: 12 to 49, 50 to 64, and 65 . Results of these analyses indicate that there were a number of notew
orthy reversals in which interviewer-administered questioning in the o
lder age strata produced higher estimates of the prevalence of substan
ce use or alcohol-related problem behaviors. These results suggest tha
t caution should be exercised in making generalizations from studies o
f reporting bias for HIV-related behaviors to older populations.