Cognitive testing of a survey instrument to assess sexual practices, behaviours, and health-related outcomes

Overview

This is a qualitative study including cognitive testing of a draft sexual health instrument among members of the general population in 20 low, middle, and high-income countries globally. The selection of the countries included a joint process with the HRP Alliance through an open call for proposals for country implementation. The development of this instrument was a collaborative, transparent process drawing on the expertise of top researchers from all six WHO regions and using existing measures from validated survey tools.

The goal of this study is to contribute to the development of a final instrument that can be easily adapted (and translated) with minimal content modifications between sites, so that data collected from different sites can be easily compared. An important step in this process is to ensure that the final instrument has global applicability and to establish the extent to which this standard instrument can be implemented with fidelity among general population groups worldwide. The study began data collection following three waves of data collection in early 2022 and is expected to finalize by December 2022.