Evaluation of interviewing techniques to enhance recall of sexual and druginjection partners

Background: People with multiple sex partners forget a significant proporti on of their partners, and drug injectors forget a large proportion of the p ersons with whom they inject drugs. This incomplete reporting poses a probl em for partner notification and social network research on infectious disea se. Goal: To evaluate supplementary interviewing techniques to enhance recall o f sex and injection partners. Study Design: One hundred thirty-nine persons at high risk for HIV particip ated in a randomized trial of interviewing techniques. After participants f reely recalled their partners, interviewers administered one of five techni ques to elicit partners who might have been forgotten. Four experimental te chniques involved cues (locations, role relationships, personal timeline, a nd partners recalled prior to cues) developed from memory research. Alphabe tic cues served as a control technique. To assess the cumulative effects of the techniques, all five techniques were administered to another 19 partic ipants. Results: In the randomized trial, the techniques varied moderately in effec tiveness and time efficiency. When administered as a set, the five techniqu es increased the number of sex and injection partners elicited by 40% and 1 23%, respectively, on average. The techniques were most effective with indi viduals who recalled many partners before the cues and/or sensed they might be forgetting partners. The available evidence indicates cue-elicited part ners are as valid as partners recalled before the cues. On epidemiologicall y significant variables, cue-elicited partners also are similar to partners recalled before the cues. Conclusion: The supplementary techniques counteract forgetting appreciably and may promote more effective partner notification and more complete descr iption of risk networks.