Assessing differences in groups randomized by recruitment chain in a respondent-driven sample of Seattle-area injection drug users.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a form of peer-based study recruitment and analysis that incorporates features designed to limit and adjust for biases in traditional snowball sampling. It is being widely used in studies of hidden populations. We report an empirical evaluation of RDS's consistency and variability, comparing groups recruited contemporaneously, by identical methods and using identical survey instruments.

Methods

We randomized recruitment chains from the RDS-based 2012 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance survey of injection drug users in the Seattle area into two groups and compared them in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, drug-associated risk behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and HIV testing frequ

SUBMITTER: Burt RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4252737 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature