The impact of T-ACASI interviewing on reported drug use among men who havesex with men

Measurements of drug use and other illicit or stigmatized behaviors are sub ject to nontrivial underreporting biases. During in-person surveys, respond ents are more likely to report such behaviors when interviewed using techni ques that maximize interviewee privacy, e.g., use of paper SAQs and audio-C ASI rather than questioning by human interviewers. Until recently, responde nts in telephone surveys could not be offered similar privacy. A new techno logy, telephone audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (T-ACASI) overcom es this limitation of telephone surveys by allowing respondents to respond to a computer. A randomized experimental test of T-ACASI was embedded in th e Urban Men's Health Study (UMHS). UMHS surveyed a probability sample of 2, 881 men from four United States cities and who reported having sex with men . Respondents interviewed using T-ACASI reported a higher prevalence of dru g use and drug-related behaviors than respondents interviewed by human inte rviewers. However, survey respondents were more likely to break off an inte rview when the interview was conducted by a T-ACASI computer rather than by a human interviewer. [Translations are provided in the International Abstr acts Section of this issue.]