HIV behavioural surveillance surveys in conflict and post-conflict situations: a call for improvement. Global Public Health 1(2

Behavioural surveillance surveys (BSSs), an evolution from the knowledgeattitudes practice surveys (KAPs), are a tool to track trends in HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes and risk behaviour among populations. The data collected support organizations in targeting specific HIV/AIDS prevention and care activities, monitoring their effectiveness and coverage, and allocating scarce resources. The objectives are to evaluate the quality and standardization of BSS-like surveys undertaken in conflict and post-conflict situations, and to provide recommendations to humanitarian agencies and governments on how to improve their quality. Survey methodology was classified as reproducible if the population-based sampling defined a sampling frame using probabilistic sampling. Survey indicators were compared to internationally-accepted HIV indicators. The results showed that 14 (45.2%) of the 31 BSS-like surveys evaluated between 1998 and 2005 in 14 countries were classified as reproducible. Surveys undertaken by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were significantly less reproducible than those undertaken by non-NGOs (p/ 0.05). The majority of surveys used at least one identical or similarly worde