Please see below for when each domain is projected to be updated.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Are you having trouble locating an instrument or navigating the database? Do you have a comment or question for the database creators? Submit a service request!