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MEDIA CENTER HIV/AIDS Survey Library Is Now Online as an Aid to Researchers NEW YORK (2 February 2001) — Horizons AIDSQuest: The HIV/AIDS Survey Library, a collection of questionnaires useful in measuring a range of issues related to AIDS research, is now available on the Population Council's Web site (http://www.popcouncil.org/horizons/AIDSQuest).The resource provides standardized questionnaires and other instruments that organizations and program managers can use or adapt for their own needs, and permits comparison of different surveys addressing the same topic. By bringing together prominently used surveys as well as smaller ones, AIDSQuest hopes to encourage the widespread use of the same or similar questions in surveys worldwide to facilitate comparison and validity of results, and to provide a forum for new and innovative surveys or scales. The surveys are designed for use in the United States, as well as in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. "AIDSQuest also offers methodological tips on developing AIDS-related surveys, including questions about the social context that are difficult to measure, such as stigma and gender roles," says Julie Pulerwitz, one of the library's designers. Other topics covered include risk and prevention behaviors, knowledge and misconceptions, attitudes, psychosocial and sociodemographic factors, care and support, voluntary counseling and testing, sexually transmitted infections, and policy issues. The HIV/AIDS Survey Library includes a summary of the development and use of each survey. Research instruments were collected from published literature as well as from international organizations conducting HIV/AIDS research, including the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California, San Francisco; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Family Health International; The Futures Group International; the Horizons Program; the MEASURE project; Population Services International; UNAIDS; and the World Health Organization. Appendixes provide a methodology to evaluate the reading level of surveys and other documents, which is particularly useful if researchers are working with low-literacy populations; ethical guidelines developed by the World Health Organization to be used when conducting research on violence; a bibliography of published research on the validity and reliability of HIV/AIDS-related survey instruments and topic areas; and a review of instruments assessing health-related quality of life. Summaries of the development and use of the surveys can be downloaded as PDFs or Word documents. Individual instruments are available as electronic copies, PDFs, or as links to the Web sites where they are available. For further information about the data bank, contact Rachel Kaufman at rkaufman@popcouncil.org. Horizons is a USAID-funded global operations research project concerned with HIV/AIDS prevention and care. Horizons works in collaboration with five partner organizations: International Center for Research on Women, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Tulane University.
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