evaluation of conducting phone interviews on sexual behavior: an iranian population-based study

Background: phone interview is a safe way for collecting sensitive data due to no need for direct contact with the interviewees and their privacy.objectives: the purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and validity of phone interviewing using mobile phones to collect sensitive information related to the participants’ sexual behavior.methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted on the sexually active population of marvdasht, iran, from 2017 - 2018.results: a total of 5,894 individuals (2,991 from urban and 2,903 from rural areas) from both genders (n = 3,202 males vs. n = 2,692 females) with an age range of 18 - 50 years were included in this study. the participation rate was convincing (92.18%), and the response rate to all questions was also very high (99.1%). according to the results, gender and place of residency had statistically significant associations with the rates of participation and response.conclusions: the results suggested that a phone interview is a potentially useful method for gathering sensitive information in iranian population, a community with a religious background.