Department of Public Health, University of Tartu, Ravila 19, Tartu, 50411, Estonia.
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.
J Urban Health. 2010 Mar;87(2):304-317. doi: 10.1007/s11524-009-9427-7. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
Few recent publications have highlighted theoretical and methodological challenges using respondent-driven sampling (RDS). To explore why recruitment with RDS may work in some populations and not in others, we assess the implementation of RDS to recruit female sex workers (FSWs) and injection drug users (IDUs) into a human immunodeficiency virus biological and risk behavior survey in Tallinn, Estonia. Recruitment of FSWs was slower and more challenging than that of IDUs. The IDU study recruited 350 participants within 7 weeks, while the FSW study recruited 227 participants over 28 weeks. Implementation modifications that did not negatively impact key RDS theoretical and methodological requirements were used to improve recruitment during the FSW study. We recommend that all RDS studies include a formative research process to involve the participation of target populations and key persons associated with these populations in the study planning and throughout the implementation processes to improve recruitment from the outset and to respond to poor recruitment during data collection.
最近很少有出版物强调使用受访者驱动抽样（RDS）所面临的理论和方法学挑战。为了探究为何 RDS 招募在某些人群中可行而在其他人群中不可行，我们评估了在爱沙尼亚塔林市进行的一项人类免疫缺陷病毒生物学和风险行为调查中，使用 RDS 招募女性性工作者（FSW）和注射吸毒者（IDU）的实施情况。招募 FSW 的速度比 IDU 更慢，更具挑战性。IDU 研究在 7 周内招募了 350 名参与者，而 FSW 研究则用 28 周招募了 227 名参与者。在 FSW 研究期间，我们使用了不会对关键 RDS 理论和方法要求产生负面影响的实施修改，以改善招募情况。我们建议所有 RDS 研究都包括一个形成性研究过程，让目标人群和与这些人群相关的关键人员参与研究规划和整个实施过程，以从一开始就改善招募，并应对数据收集过程中出现的招募不佳的情况。
