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The Context of HIV Risk Among Drug Users and Their Sexual Partners

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intercourse, <strong>and</strong> since anal intercourse appears to be a relatively rare<br />

practice in this population.<br />

<strong>The</strong> experiments with questionnaire format suggest the problem <strong>of</strong><br />

response bias can to some extent be alleviated by use <strong>of</strong> long, permissiongiving<br />

introductions to questions <strong>and</strong> perhaps also by asking sensitive<br />

questions late versus early in the questionnaire. While response bias<br />

probably cannot be eliminated, it can be corrected in multivariate<br />

analyses by inclusion <strong>of</strong> a measure <strong>of</strong> social desirability or other measure<br />

<strong>of</strong> presentation bias. In experimental studies, such bias is ordinarily<br />

corrected by r<strong>and</strong>omization, although it adds to r<strong>and</strong>om measurement<br />

error.<br />

A limitation <strong>of</strong> several <strong>of</strong> the findings reported here is that they are based<br />

on small sample sizes. <strong>The</strong>se findings in particular need to be replicated<br />

with larger samples. With larger samples, patterns not evident in the<br />

present data may also be discovered.<br />

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