Citation

Ramos DO, Daly M, Seidl-de-Moura ML, Jomar RT, Nadanovsky P. Cad. Saude Publica 2017; 33(4): e00145815.

Affiliation

Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Escola Nacional De Saude Publica)

DOI

10.1590/0102-311X00145815

PMID

28538791

Abstract

This study assessed the consistency of self-reports of risk behavior (overall and within four specific domains: alcohol use, tobacco use, drug use, and sexual activity) in two editions of the Brazilian National School Based Survey of Adolescent Health (PeNSE): 2009 and 2012. The overall proportion of cases with at least one inconsistent response in the two editions was 11.7% (2.7% on the alcohol items, 2.1% for drug use, 4.3% for cigarette use, 3% for sexual activity) and 22.7% (12.8% on alcohol items, 2.5% for drug use, 4.3% for cigarette use, 4.1% for sexual activity), respectively. Such inconsistency was more prevalent among males, delayed students, those who reported having experimented with drugs, and those who did not have a cellphone. Because inconsistent responses were more prevalent among the students who claimed to have engaged in risky activities, removing inconsistent responders affected the estimated prevalence of all risk behaviors in both editions of the survey. This study supports the importance of performing consistency checks of self-report surveys, following the growing body of literature on this topic.

Language: en