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Evaluating Recruitment among Female Sex Workers and Injecting Drug Users at Risk for HIV Using Respondent-driven Sampling in Estonia

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported in part through grant R01 DA 03574 from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria who funded this study through the National Institute for Health Development in Estonia (EST-202-G01-H-00), Norwegian Financial Mechanism/EEA (grant EE0016) and by US Civilian Research Development Foundation grant (ESX0-2722-TA-06).

Authors express their gratitude to the teams at the NGOs Me Aitame Sind, Corrigo, and to all participants of the study.

The content of this paper has not been published elsewhere, nor is it being considered elsewhere, nor are there any conflicts of interest contained therein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, University of Tartu, Ravila 19, Tartu, 50411, Estonia

    Anneli Uusküla & Mait Raag

  2. School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA

    Lisa G. Johnston

  3. Department of Surveillance and Evaluation, National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia

    Aire Trummal

  4. Estonian Drug Monitoring Center, National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia

    Ave Talu

  5. Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Don C. Des Jarlais

Authors
  1. Anneli Uusküla
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  2. Lisa G. Johnston
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  3. Mait Raag
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  4. Aire Trummal
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  5. Ave Talu
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  6. Don C. Des Jarlais
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anneli Uusküla.

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Contributors

Uusküla, L. Johnston and D. Des Jarlais designed the approach for the comparison analysis. M. Raag performed the needed statistical analyses. A. Uusküla wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to revising the manuscript and have approved the final manuscript.

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Uusküla, A., Johnston, L.G., Raag, M. et al. Evaluating Recruitment among Female Sex Workers and Injecting Drug Users at Risk for HIV Using Respondent-driven Sampling in Estonia. J Urban Health 87, 304–317 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-009-9427-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-009-9427-7

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