Evaluation of the role of location and distance in recruitment in respondent-driven sampling.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Respondent-driven sampling(RDS) is an increasingly widely used variant of a link tracing design for recruiting hidden populations. The role of the spatial distribution of the target population has not been robustly examined for RDS. We examine patterns of recruitment by location, and how they may have biased an RDS study findings.

Methods

Total-population data were available on a range of characteristics on a population of 2402 male household-heads from an open cohort of 25 villages in rural Uganda. The locations of households were known a-priori. An RDS survey was carried out in this population, employing current RDS methods of sampling and statistical inference.

Results

There was little heterogeneity in the population by location. Data suggested more dist

SUBMITTER: McCreesh N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3215957 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature