TY - JOUR

T1 - An analysis of respondent driven sampling with injection drug users (IDU) in Albania and the Russian Federation

AU - Stormer, Ame

AU - Tun, Waimar

AU - Guli, Lisa

AU - Harxhi, Arjan

AU - Bodanovskaia, Zinaida

AU - Yakovleva, Anna

AU - Rusakova, Maia

AU - Levina, Olga

AU - Bani, Roland

AU - Rjepaj, Klodian

AU - Bino, Silva

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Douglas Heckathorn of Cornell University for his technical assistance. Funding for this paper was provided by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of the Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care (IMPACT) Project, managed by Family Health International (FHI), Cooperative Agreement HRN-A-00-97-00017-00. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or FHI. Copyright: Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2006/11

Y1 - 2006/11

N2 - Injection drug users in Tirana, Albania and St. Petersburg, Russia were recruited into a study assessing HIV-related behaviors and HIV serostatus using Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), a peer-driven recruitment sampling strategy that results in a probability sample. (Salganik M, Heckathorn DD. Sampling and estimation in hidden populations using respondent-driven sampling. Sociol Method. 2004;34:193-239). This paper presents a comparison of RDS implementation, findings on network and recruitment characteristics, and lessons learned. Initiated with 13 to 15 seeds, approximately 200 IDUs were recruited within 8 weeks. Information resulting from RDS indicates that social network patterns from the two studies differ greatly. Female IDUs in Tirana had smaller network sizes than male IDUs, unlike in St. Petersburg where female IDUs had larger network sizes than male IDUs. Recruitment patterns in each country also differed by demographic categories. Recruitment analyses indicate that IDUs form socially distinct groups by sex in Tirana, whereas there was a greater degree of gender mixing patterns in St. Petersburg. RDS proved to be an effective means of surveying these hard-to-reach populations.

AB - Injection drug users in Tirana, Albania and St. Petersburg, Russia were recruited into a study assessing HIV-related behaviors and HIV serostatus using Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), a peer-driven recruitment sampling strategy that results in a probability sample. (Salganik M, Heckathorn DD. Sampling and estimation in hidden populations using respondent-driven sampling. Sociol Method. 2004;34:193-239). This paper presents a comparison of RDS implementation, findings on network and recruitment characteristics, and lessons learned. Initiated with 13 to 15 seeds, approximately 200 IDUs were recruited within 8 weeks. Information resulting from RDS indicates that social network patterns from the two studies differ greatly. Female IDUs in Tirana had smaller network sizes than male IDUs, unlike in St. Petersburg where female IDUs had larger network sizes than male IDUs. Recruitment patterns in each country also differed by demographic categories. Recruitment analyses indicate that IDUs form socially distinct groups by sex in Tirana, whereas there was a greater degree of gender mixing patterns in St. Petersburg. RDS proved to be an effective means of surveying these hard-to-reach populations.

KW - Albania

KW - Injection drug users

KW - Respondent driven sampling

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845630348&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11524-006-9105-y

DO - 10.1007/s11524-006-9105-y

M3 - Article

C2 - 17075727

AN - SCOPUS:33845630348

VL - 83

SP - i73-i82

JO - Journal of Urban Health

JF - Journal of Urban Health

SN - 1099-3460

IS - 7 SUPPL.

ER -