TY - JOUR T1 - Integrated behavioral and biological assessment: methodological issues in social and behavioral research AU - Subramanian, Thilakavathi AU - Ramakrishnan, Lakshmi AU - Paranjape, Ramesh S. PY - 2013 DA - March JF - EASTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE PB - Van Yüzüncü Yıl Üniversitesi WT - DergiPark SN - 1301-0883 SP - 107 EP - 112 VL - 16 IS - 2 LA - en AB - Abstract. The IBBA round 1 was the first large-scale probability sample survey in India that included both behavioral and biological indicators among populations most at risk of HIV transmission. The survey was conducted in six endemic states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Nagaland and among four segments of the National Highways. The IBBA collected data on prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, HIV risk behaviour and exposure to intervention programs, in a total of more than 25,000 respondents, over a 19 month period between November 2005 and June 2007, across 29 districts in India where Avahan program for these high risk groups were implemented. The survey was implemented by the respective state Indian Council of Medical Research institutes except in Karnataka where Karnataka Health Promotion Trust was responsible for IBBA. Methodological challenges related to social and behavioral areas faced during the implementation of IBBA in various areas like co-ordination of activities and proposed time line, identification and sampling of the target groups, establishment and feed back from the community board members, proper selection and setting up of temporary clinics, maintenance of quality control for both biological and behavioral data and how these challenges were handled are discussed in this paper.Key words: IBBA, methodological challenges, social and behavioral aspects, India KW - IBBA KW - methodological challenges KW - social and behavioral aspects KW - India CR - 1. National AIDS Control Organization. HIV Sentinel Surveillance and HIV estimation in India 2007. A Technical Brief. NACO, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, October 2008. CR - 2. National AIDS Control Organization. National baseline high-risk and bridge population behavioural surveillance survey. Part I: Female sex workers and their clients. New Delhi, India: NACO; 2001. CR - 3. National AIDS Control Organization. National baseline high risk and bridge population behavioural surveillance survey. Part II: Men who have sex with men and injecting drug users. New Delhi, India: NACO; 2001; 101. CR - 4. National AIDS Control Organization. National behavioral surveillance survey (BSS): Female sex workers (FSWs) and their clients. New Delhi, India: NACO; 2006. CR - 5. National AIDS Control Organization. National behavioral surveillance survey (BSS): Men who have sex with men and injecting drug users. New Delhi, India: NACO; 2006. CR - 6. Saidel T, Adhikary R, Mainkar M, et al. Baseline integrated behavioural and biological assessment among most at-risk populations in six highprevalence states of India: design and implementation challenges. AIDS 2008; 22: 17-34. CR - 7. Marie Laga and Christine Wanke (Eds). Characterizing the Indian HIV Epidemic and Assessing Large-Scale Prevention Efforts– Avahan. AIDS 2008; 22 (suppl 5). CR - 8. Heckathorn D. RDS II: developing valid population estimates from chain-referred samples of hidden populations. Social Problems 2002; 49: 11-34. UR - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/ejm/issue//72459 L1 - https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/62085 ER -