RE: Public Comments for ICR 202107-0990-002
Dear Benjamin Brooks of Whitman-Walker:
Thank you for providing comments on the proposed Information Collection Activity. Responses to the concerns you have raised are provided in italicized text following your comments.
We are concerned that question E3’s references to HIV/AIDS are inaccurate and therefore are inappropriate and stigmatizing. AIDS is not a transmissible disease. To be more
accurate the survey should only say “HIV” not “HIV/AIDS.”
We have removed references to AIDS in all of the E3 items where it was mentioned. We added clarification text in the question in case youth respondents do not recognize “HIV” on its own, “…HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS.”
Additionally, item f in question E3 reads, “You can get an STD or HIV/AIDS from having oral sex.” As phrased, this is a compound question that can lead to confusion and is potentially misleading. Absent open lesions on the genitals and the mouth, HIV is not considered transmissible through oral sex. However, gonorrhea and chlamydia are readily transmissible via oral sex. To ensure that the evaluation is accurately assessing student respondent’s knowledge, we recommend bifurcating this item to ask separately about HIV, or remove HIV from this item entirely.
We have removed HIV from this item entirely.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Rice, Tara (HHS/OPHS) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-01-14 |