Abstract：
BACKGROUND: Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is widely used to sample populations with higher risk of HIV infection for whom no sampling frames exist. However, few studies have been done to assess the reliability of RDS in real world settings.
METHODS: We assessed the reliability of naïve RDS samples using five rounds of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance - People Who Inject Drugs surveys in Newark, New Jersey from 2005 to 2018. Specifically, we compared the distributions of time-insensitive demographic characteristics in temporally adjacent RDS samples with Monte Carlo Two-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test with 100,000 replicates. The distributions of time-sensitive demographic characteristics were also compared as sensitivity analyses.
RESULTS: The study showed that repeated RDS samples among people who inject drugs in the greater Newark area, New Jersey were reliable in most of time-insensitive demographics and recruitment homophily statistics. Sensitivity analyses of time-sensitive demographics also presented consistencies in most of temporally adjacent samples.
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, RDS has the potential to provide reliable samples, but demographic characteristics of RDS samples may be easily biased by homophily. Future studies using RDS may need to pay more attention to potential homophily bias and consider necessary diagnostic procedures and sample adjustments.
METHODS: We assessed the reliability of naïve RDS samples using five rounds of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance - People Who Inject Drugs surveys in Newark, New Jersey from 2005 to 2018. Specifically, we compared the distributions of time-insensitive demographic characteristics in temporally adjacent RDS samples with Monte Carlo Two-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test with 100,000 replicates. The distributions of time-sensitive demographic characteristics were also compared as sensitivity analyses.
RESULTS: The study showed that repeated RDS samples among people who inject drugs in the greater Newark area, New Jersey were reliable in most of time-insensitive demographics and recruitment homophily statistics. Sensitivity analyses of time-sensitive demographics also presented consistencies in most of temporally adjacent samples.
CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, RDS has the potential to provide reliable samples, but demographic characteristics of RDS samples may be easily biased by homophily. Future studies using RDS may need to pay more attention to potential homophily bias and consider necessary diagnostic procedures and sample adjustments.
摘要：
背景：受访者驱动的抽样（RDS）被广泛用于对没有抽样框架的HIV感染风险较高的人群进行抽样。然而,很少有研究来评估RDS在现实环境中的可靠性。
方法：我们使用五轮国家HIV行为监测-在纽瓦克注射毒品的人调查，评估了未接触RDS样本的可靠性。新泽西州从2005年到2018年。具体来说,我们使用MonteCarlo双样本Kolmogorov-Smirnov检验,重复100,000次,比较了时间相邻RDS样本中时间不敏感的人口统计学特征的分布.还比较了时间敏感性人口统计学特征的分布作为敏感性分析。
结果：研究表明，在更大的纽瓦克地区注射毒品的人群中，重复的RDS样本，新泽西州在大多数对时间不敏感的人口统计数据和招募同性恋统计数据中都是可靠的。时间敏感人口统计学的敏感性分析也显示了大多数时间相邻样本的一致性。
结论：结论：RDS有可能提供可靠的样品，但是RDS样本的人口统计学特征很容易因同质性而产生偏差。未来使用RDS的研究可能需要更多地关注潜在的同质性偏倚，并考虑必要的诊断程序和样本调整。
方法：我们使用五轮国家HIV行为监测-在纽瓦克注射毒品的人调查，评估了未接触RDS样本的可靠性。新泽西州从2005年到2018年。具体来说,我们使用MonteCarlo双样本Kolmogorov-Smirnov检验,重复100,000次,比较了时间相邻RDS样本中时间不敏感的人口统计学特征的分布.还比较了时间敏感性人口统计学特征的分布作为敏感性分析。
结果：研究表明，在更大的纽瓦克地区注射毒品的人群中，重复的RDS样本，新泽西州在大多数对时间不敏感的人口统计数据和招募同性恋统计数据中都是可靠的。时间敏感人口统计学的敏感性分析也显示了大多数时间相邻样本的一致性。
结论：结论：RDS有可能提供可靠的样品，但是RDS样本的人口统计学特征很容易因同质性而产生偏差。未来使用RDS的研究可能需要更多地关注潜在的同质性偏倚，并考虑必要的诊断程序和样本调整。
