Evaluation of interviewing techniques to enhance recall of sexual and drug injection partners

Background: People with multiple sex partners forget a significant proportion of their partners, and drug injectors forget a large proportion of the persons with whom they inject drugs. This incomplete reporting poses a problem for partner notification and social network research on infectious disease. Goal: To evaluate supplementary interviewing techniques to enhance recall of sex and injection partners. Study Design: One hundred thirty-nine persons at high risk for HIV participated in a randomized trial of interviewing techniques. After participants freely recalled their partners, interviewers administered one of five techniques to elicit partners who might have been forgotten. Four experimental techniques involved cues (locations, role relationships, personal timeline, and partners recalled prior to cues) developed from memory research. Alphabetic cues served as a control technique. To assess the cumulative effects of the techniques, all five techniques were administered to another 19 participants. Results: In the randomized trial, the techniques varied moderately in effectiveness and time efficiency. When administered as a set, the five techniques increased the number of sex and injection partners elicited by 40% and 123%, respectively, on average. The techniques were most effective with individuals who recalled many partners before the cues and/or sensed they might be forgetting partners. The available evidence indicates cue-elicited partners are as valid as partners recalled before the cues. On epidemiologically 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 description of risk networks.