Encouraging survey participation among individuals seeking HIV prevention services: does a community identity match help or hurt?

Understanding the behaviors and attitudes of at-risk populations is fundamental to controlling the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The problem of nonresponse among these populations, however, plagues survey research designed to address these issues. Previous work undertaken to map out the dynamics of nonresponse--both noncontacts and refusals--have primarily focused on exploring the effectiveness of a single method of outreach.