biostudies-literatureRudolph AENIDA NIH HHSNational Institute on Drug Abuse94https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11036624biostudies-literatureUnknown24(1)<h4>Background</h4>Accurate prevalence estimates of drug use and its harms are important to characterize burden and develop interventions to reduce negative health outcomes and disparities. Lack of a sampling frame for marginalized/stigmatized populations, including persons who use drugs (PWUD) in rural settings, makes this challenging. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is frequently used to recruit PWUD. However, the validity of RDS-generated population-level prevalence estimates relies on assumptions that should be evaluated.<h4>Methods</h4>RDS was used to recruit PWUD across seven Rural Opioid Initiative studies between 2018-2020. To evaluate RDS assumptions, we computed recruitment homophily and design effects, generated convergence and bottleneck plots, and tested for recruitment and dBMC medical research methodologyEvaluation of respondent-driven sampling in seven studies of people who use drugs from rural populations: findings from the Rural Opioid Initiative.PMC11036624UG3DA044830UH3 DA044798UG3DA044822K01 DA055130UG3DA044823UG3DA044798UG3DA044831UG3DA044826U24DA048538U24 DA048538UG3 DA044798UG3DA044829Pho MTKorthuis PTMiller WCWestergaard RPStopka TJTsui JIBobashev GFriedmann PDWhitney BMCooper HLCrane HMBrook DZule WANance RMAkhtar WJenkins WDSeal DWDelaney JACGo VFYoung AMRudolph AEFrost SDWRuderman SACook RfalseEvaluation of respondent-driven sampling in seven studies of people who use drugs from rural populations: findings from the Rural Opioid Initiative.<h4>Background</h4>Accurate prevalence estimates of drug use and its harms are important to characterize burden and develop interventions to reduce negative health outcomes and disparities. Lack of a sampling frame for marginalized/stigmatized populations, including persons who use drugs (PWUD) in rural settings, makes this challenging. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is frequently used to recruit PWUD. However, the validity of RDS-generated population-level prevalence estimates relies on assumptions that should be evaluated.<h4>Methods</h4>RDS was used to recruit PWUD across seven Rural Opioid Initiative studies between 2018-2020. To evaluate RDS assumptions, we computed recruitment homophily and design effects, generated convergence and bottleneck plots, and tested for recruitment and d2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024 Apr2026-03-31T10:55:54.018Z2025-08-31T03:05:19.503ZS-EPMC110366243865421910.1186/s12874-024-02206-5