Center for Interventions, Treatment, and Addiction Research, Department of Community Health, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, OH 45435, United States.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2012 Feb 1;121(1-2):23-9. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.08.005. Epub 2011 Aug 31.
Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) has been promoted as a superior method in recruiting hard-to-reach and hidden populations. Although its application has expanded enormously, there remains a need for empirical data evaluating the performance of RDS in different settings. This study describes the application of RDS to recruit a community sample (N=396) of young adults (18-23 years old) into a natural history study of non-medical pharmaceutical opioid use. Since recruitment targeted non-dependent pharmaceutical opioid users, and applied other eligibility restrictions, several modifications had to be made to make RDS work with this narrowly defined target population. RDS recruitment was less efficient than expected, and produced greater numbers of African American recruits than anticipated. Although the sampling quota was met, sample analysis revealed a lack of equilibrium in terms of ethnic composition and very strong in-group recruitment tendencies among White and African American respondents. This study contributes potentially helpful insights into the strengths and limitations of using RDS which may benefit future studies.
应答驱动抽样（RDS）已被推广为招募难以接触和隐藏人群的优越方法。尽管其应用已经大大扩展，但仍需要实证数据来评估 RDS 在不同环境中的性能。本研究描述了 RDS 在招募年轻人（18-23 岁）社区样本（N=396）进入非医疗性阿片类药物使用自然史研究中的应用。由于招募目标是无依赖性的药物类阿片使用者，并应用了其他资格限制，因此必须对 RDS 进行一些修改，使其适用于这个定义明确的目标人群。RDS 招募的效率低于预期，招募的非裔美国人比预期的多。尽管抽样配额得到满足，但样本分析显示，在族裔构成方面存在不平衡，以及白人和非裔美国受访者之间非常强烈的同组招募倾向。本研究为使用 RDS 的优势和局限性提供了潜在的有益见解，这可能对未来的研究有所帮助。
