About SABI

Upcoming SABI Updates

Please see below for when each domain is projected to be updated.

• Adherence — Updated
• Attitudes — This domain scheduled to be updated in 2022
• Coping — This domain is scheduled to be updated Spring 2022
• HIV Knowledge — Updated
• Gender Based Violence — Updated
• Mental Health — This domain scheduled to be updated TBD
• Quality of Life — This domain is scheduled to be updated TBD
• Self-Efficacy — This domain scheduled to be updated TBD
• Stigma — This domain is scheduled to be updated summer 2022
• Social Support — Updated
• Substance Use — This domain scheduled to be updated TBD
• Sexual Risk Behavior — This domain is scheduled to be updated 2022

SABI Methodology

Overview

SABI is an open-access compilation of social and behavioral instruments intended to help researchers instantly search, access and compare measures of social and behavioral domains for use in HIV research. Standardized PDF output files provide researchers with instrument titles, source articles, survey items with response options, and information about scoring, when available. Content in SABI is periodically updated by trained research assistants using a three-step process: 1) environmental scans of key domains and broad literature reviews of quality social and behavioral instruments used in HIV research; 2) data extraction of key instrument characteristics and psychometric properties; and 3) author approvals for instrument sharing.

Step 1: Environmental Scan and Literature review

1. We begin by identifying domains useful for measurement in social and behavioral research on HIV. We conduct multiple surveys of UNC CFAR users’ needs and preferences regarding measurement tools to compile a list of 12 separate domains: attitudes, coping, quality of life, substance use, mental illness, HIV knowledge, social support, self-efficacy, sexual risk behavior, medication adherence, violence and stigma.
2. We then conduct broad literature searches of scientific research databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed and PsychInfo, to identify scientific articles on HIV research topics that report assessing our domains of interest. Search criteria specify that the articles have to be of HIV-related research and have to report the reliability and/ or the validity of the measure(s).
3. To supplement our literature searches, we leverage the expertise of the scientific community in the UNC CFAR by identifying key informants with expertise in each domain, and we interview them to identify potentially relevant instruments for each domain.
4. We review the methods of each identified article to obtain the description, citation, and example items provided for the instrument of interest. We analyze the descriptions provided of each measure and compare them across articles to determine which are unique instruments and which are used in multiple studies. When variations of a measure are identified, only those that provide reliability and/or validity data for the revised versions are included as separate instruments.
5. Once we compile a list of all identified instruments, we again seek input from our key informants in each domain. The key informant reviews the list of identified instruments, provides feedback on the relevance of the instrument to the domain of interest and to the HIV research field, and recommends additional search strategies to fill any identified gaps.
6. In the final step of our key informant and broad literature review, we identify a single source article to abstract for each instrument. When multiple articles are available that report on a measure, we select an article that uses the instrument in HIV research and reports on its psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and validity). This is often an article describing the development and testing of the original instrument.

Step 2: Extraction and Publication of Instrument Characteristics

For each instrument, we extract information on a standardized set of specific characteristics, so as to populate the tables found in SABI. This includes the instrument title, the article in which it was published, a brief description of the instrument, the language and population in which it was used, reliability and validity indicators, and the number of items in the instrument. We then enter the title and extracted characteristics for each instrument into the searchable SABI online database.

Step 3: Author approval to provide instrument

In order to make the instrument available on the SABI website, we type up the questions and language in the instrument when we can find it available in the article, and contact the author of the article to obtain permission to publish the instrument on SABI. We also ask the author for the instrument when we cannot extract the items from the article. For those who grant permission, we type the items and create a PDF document containing the instrument and citation information to publish on SABI. For those who decline permission, the PDF document is not made available.

Other Instrument Resources

In addition to providing access to survey instruments we have identified through the systematic review methodology described above, the SABI database provides access to other curated resources that may be helpful to HIV investigators as they are being designed. Below you will find links to such resources.

• A Depression Measures Working Recommendations document developed by the HIV Prevention Trials Network’s Social Behavioral Sciences Working Group’s Mental Health Subgroup for use across HPTN studies. It can be found and downloaded here: https://www.hptn.org/resources/researchtools (scroll down on the page).

Boilerplate Language for Proposals

The Social and Behavioral Instruments (SABI) database is an online, searchable, user-friendly database that enables researchers to search for validated instruments and scales to measure constructs relevant to social and behavioral HIV research. SABI currently has 12 domains: attitudes, coping, quality of life, substance use, mental illness, HIV knowledge, social support, self-efficacy, sexual risk behavior, medication adherence, violence, and stigma. The UNC CFAR Social and Behavioral Sciences Core routinely conducts systematic reviews of existing domains to keep them up-to-date and works to identify new social and behavioral domains that may be of interest to HIV researchers. Each domain is periodically updated using a three-step process: 1) environmental scans of key domains and broad literature reviews of quality social and behavioral instruments used in HIV research; 2) data extraction of key instrument characteristics and psychometric properties; and 3) author approvals for instrument sharing.

How to Cite SABI

In addition to citing the source article, if SABI was helpful to you, please acknowledge SABI in presented or published work resulting from this research using the following language:

Survey measures were informed in part by the Social and Behavioral Instruments (SABI) database developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for AIDS Research, an NIH funded program P30-AI50410

Need Help?

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