Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.
Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2013 Aug;21(4):277-86. doi: 10.1037/a0033071. Epub 2013 Jul 8.
The Sexual Discounting Task uses the delay discounting framework to examine sexual HIV risk behavior. Previous research showed task performance to be significantly correlated with self-reported HIV risk behavior in cocaine dependence. Test-retest reliability and gender differences had remained unexamined. The present study examined the test-retest reliability of the Sexual Discounting Task. Cocaine-dependent individuals (18 men, 13 women) completed the task in two laboratory visits ∼7 days apart. Participants selected photographs of individuals with whom they were willing to have casual sex. Among these, participants identified the individual most (and least) likely to have a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and the individual with whom he or she most (and least) wanted to have sex. In reference to these individuals, participants rated their likelihood of having unprotected sex versus waiting to have sex with a condom, at various delays. A money delay discounting task was also completed at the first visit. Significant differences in discounting among partner conditions were shown. Differential stability was demonstrated by significant, positive correlations between test and retest for all four partner conditions. Absolute stability was demonstrated by statistical equivalence tests between test and retest, and also supported by a lack of significant differences between test and retest. Men generally discounted significantly more than women for sexual outcomes but not money. Results suggest the Sexual Discounting Task to be a reliable measure in cocaine-dependent individuals, which supports its use as a repeated measure in clinical research, for example, studies examining acute drug effects on sexual risk and the effects of addiction treatment and HIV prevention interventions on sexual risk.
性折扣任务使用延迟折扣框架来研究性 HIV 风险行为。先前的研究表明，该任务的表现与可卡因依赖者自我报告的 HIV 风险行为显著相关。但测试-重测信度和性别差异仍未得到检验。本研究检验了性折扣任务的测试-重测信度。可卡因依赖者（18 名男性，13 名女性）在两次实验室访问中完成了任务，间隔约 7 天。参与者选择他们愿意发生随意性行为的人的照片。在这些照片中，参与者确定了最有可能（和最不可能）患有性传播感染（STI）的个体，以及他们最想与之发生性行为的个体（和最不想与之发生性行为的个体）。在提到这些个体时，参与者评估了他们在不同延迟时间下与无保护性行为相比，等待使用避孕套进行性行为的可能性。在第一次访问时还完成了一项金钱延迟折扣任务。在不同的伴侣条件下显示出折扣率的显著差异。通过对所有四种伴侣条件的测试和重测之间存在显著的正相关，证明了差异性稳定性。通过测试和重测之间的统计学等效性检验以及测试和重测之间没有显著差异，证明了绝对稳定性。男性在性结果上的折扣率普遍显著高于女性，但在金钱上则不然。研究结果表明，性折扣任务在可卡因依赖者中是一种可靠的测量方法，支持其在临床研究中作为重复测量使用，例如，研究急性药物对性风险的影响，以及成瘾治疗和 HIV 预防干预对性风险的影响。
