He said, she said: concordance between sexual partners.

BACKGROUND

Most studies of sexual behavior and risk are based on self-reports of individuals.

GOAL

The goal of this study was to assess interpartner concordance on self-reported sexual behavior, condom use, and relationship characteristics; and agreement between individuals' perceptions of their partners' sexual risks and the partners' actual reports.

STUDY DESIGN

Interviews were conducted separately but concurrently with 112 heterosexual couples at increased risk for HIV/sexually transmitted infections recruited through women at clinics and community locations.

RESULTS

Couples were concordant on reports of relationship characteristics (kappa > or = 0.84), sexual behavior, and condom use (r > or = 0.62), but disagreed on who has more power and sexual decision-making dominance (kappa < or = 0.26). We found substantial agreement between men's perceptions and their partners' reported risky behavior (kappa = 0.62), but only fair agreement between women's perceptions and their partners' reports (kappa = 0.30).

CONCLUSION

Individual self-reports could be reliable measures of sexual behavior. Additionally, prevention interventions need to address women's misperceptions about their partners' risky behaviors.