DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38158.v1
title: San Francisco Men's Health Study, 1984-1993
title: Version 1

description: The San Francisco Men's Health Study (SFMHS) was a prospective epidemiological study designed to learn more about the natural history of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The study was funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) under a contract with the School of Public Health of the University of California, Berkeley. Several organizations cooperated in carrying out the San Francisco study. The School of Public Health at the University of California provided the overall administration for the project. The Survey Research Center, also at the University, was responsible for questionnaire design, sampling, recruitment of participants, interviewing, coding, and data entry. Children's Hospital of San Francisco was the location for the interviewing and provided the facilities for the physical examinations, the various clinical tests performed, and the collection of specimens, some of which were sent to NIAID. The Irwin Memorial Blood Bank of San Francisco performed most of the blood analysis and also stored frozen lymphocytes. Research on the specimens retained locally was carried out at the University of California, San Francisco.
 Work on the project began in September, 1983, when the contract was signed. The first year was devoted to the design of the project and the first wave of interviews. The study plan called for re-interviewing participants multiple times at six-month intervals. Data collection for Wave 1 was carried out from May 1984 until April 1985. Data collection for the final wave, Wave 16, was carried out from October 1992 until May 1993. In addition to the 16 principal waves, the study included a number of small partial data collections (called "half waves") such as Wave 3B, Wave 4B, and so on. These are not full waves for the entire cohort, rather they were an opportunity for the investigators to ask a few additional questions of a few of the participants in between the main data collection waves. (Note that the only real divided wave was Wave 15, which was divided into two parts -- Wave 15A and Wave 15B. Each of those parts was directed at a distinct segment of the cohort.) In addition to the waves and "half waves," there were several sub-studies based on the cohort of subjects in the study. Some of these were self-administered questionnaires handed out to the subjects during one or more of the waves. Others were additional lab tests or clinic observations. Finally, there is a Follow-Up data file for the SFMHS. This file reports the survival status of each participant as of the end of the study in August of 1993. Note, however, that surveillance continued for HIV-positive men from 1994 to 2002 as part of the United Men's Health Study and other subsequent studies.
description: This study had two major objectives: (1) to determine the general health status of young men living in San Francisco, and (2) to determine the degree to which this population is at risk for HIV infection. In addition, the study provided estimates of the prevalence of HIV infection among young men in San Francisco during the study's time period.
description: A letter was sent to each selected housing unit to introduce the study in general terms and to advise residents that an interviewer would be coming. Shortly thereafter an interviewer went to the household to determine whether any persons eligible for the study resided there. If one or more eligible persons were found, they were given information packets on the study and, if possible, were immediately given appointments for a visit to the clinic, where the interview and examination would be administered. Several visits were made to each household, if needed, in order to locate eligible persons and to schedule them for clinic them for clinic appointments. Prior to each scheduled clinic appointment a reminder postcard was sent, and an attempt was made to confirm the appointment by telephone on the day before.
description: The study's 16 principal waves were conducted starting in May 1984 and finishing in May 1993. These datasets contained a wide range of variables that covered topics such as, participant's physical and mental health status, sexual history, drug use, and blood assessment results. 
 After each wave beginning with Wave 3 and ending with Wave 15, a "half wave" survey was administered to select participants. These half waves were an opportunity to ask follow up questions of participants in between the main waves of the study. The variables in the half waves are similar to those in the main waves and contain information from another blood assessment and physical examination. 
 In addition to the waves and half waves, there were several sub-studies based on the cohort of subjects in the study. Some of these were self-administered questionnaires handed out to the subjects during one or more of the waves. Others were additional lab tests or clinic observations. Included in these sub studies were variables describing participant's medicine use and attitudes towards medication (AZT Data), marital status (Marital Status Data), nutrition (Nutrition Data), medical care costs (Medical Care Costs Data), oral lesions (Oral Lesion Data, present for waves 7-16), health tests and indicators (BETA2 Data, Seroconverter Data, DHEA Sulfate Data, Neopterin Data, P24 Antibody Data, PCR Test Data, San Francisco City Clinic Data). Finally, there is a follow-up dataset that includes health outcomes and statuses of the participants.
description: A person-level sampling weight (SAMPWT) is provided, which adjusts for differences in the probability of selection. This weight was adjusted further to compensate for differences in the response rate in different strata (tracts), producing a combined relative weight (COMBWT). A variant of the combined weight was provided to expand to the estimated population size (EXPAND). For more information on the sampling and weighting procedures please refer to the Technical Sampling Report.
description: Response Rates: Of 3,343 selected households for the Wave 1 baseline study, 231 were vacant or had no one who was English speaking. Of the remaining 3,112 households, screening interviews were completed at 2,961 households, for a screening response rate of 95.1 percent. The screening process identified 1,245 household with 1,759 eligible males. Of the 1,759 eligible males, wave 1 interviews were completed with 1,043 (59.3 percent). The combined response rate was therefore (.951 x .593) = 56.4 percent.
description: The sample for this survey was a stratified two-stage area sample of all households within 19 census tracts in the city of San Francisco, California. Each tract was treated as a sampling stratum. The tracts included were 162-171, 204-207, and 210- 214. All eligible males in each selected housing unit were taken into the initial sample. For more information on the sampling and weighting procedures please refer to the the technical sampling report.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Wave 1 Data
DS2: Wave 2 Data
DS3: Wave 3 Data
DS4: Wave 3B Data
DS5: Wave 4 Data
DS6: Wave 4B Data
DS7: Wave 5 Data
DS8: Wave 5B Data
DS9: Wave 6 Data
DS10: Wave 6B Data
DS11: Wave 7 Data
DS12: Wave 7B Data
DS13: Wave 8 Data
DS14: Wave 8B Data
DS15: Wave 9 Data
DS16: Wave 9B Data
DS17: Wave 10 Data
DS18: Wave 10B Data
DS19: Wave 11 Data
DS20: Wave 11B Data
DS21: Wave 12 Data
DS22: Wave 12B Data
DS23: Wave 13 Data
DS24: Wave 13B Data
DS25: Wave 14 Data
DS26: Wave 15A Data
DS27: Wave 15B Data
DS28: Wave 16 Data
DS29: AZT Data
DS30: BETA-2 Data
DS31: Seroconverter Data
DS32: DHEA Sulfate Data
DS33: Follow-up Data
DS34: Medical Care Costs Data
DS35: Marital Status Data
DS36: Neopterin Data
DS37: Nutrition Data
DS38: OL Wave 7 Data
DS39: OL Wave 7B Data
DS40: OL Wave 8 Data
DS41: OL Wave 8B Data
DS42: OL Wave 9 Data
DS43: OL Wave 9B Data
DS44: OL Wave 10 Data
DS45: OL Wave 10B Data
DS46: OL Waves 11-14 Data
DS47: P24 Antibody Data
DS48: PCR Test Data
DS49: San Francisco City Clinic Data
description: English speaking men, currently unmarried, aged 25-64 from 19 census tracts within San Francisco. Smallest Geographic Unit: Census Tracts
description: face-to-face interview; self-enumerated questionnaireThere were three major studies in this series of HIV/AIDS studies.
 The San Francisco Men's Health Study included a baseline survey in 1984-1985 and 15 more waves of follow-up interviews with the same respondents until 1993. There were also several self-administered sub-studies based on the same respondents.
 Beginning in March 1994, the San Francisco Men's Health Study was merged with the San Francisco General Hospital Cohort Study to form the United Men's Health Study. Data collection activities in this phase of the project were restricted to basic surveillance of men known to be HIV-positive. There were 7 waves of data collection between 1994 and 2002. 
 In 1992-1993, a new sample of younger men (aged 18-29) in San Francisco was interviewed for the San Francisco Young Men's Health Study (ICPSR study 38173). There were 7 waves of data collection between 1993 and 1999.