Using Social Network as a Recruiting Tool for Research on Substance Use in the Taipei Metropolitan Area: Study Design, Implementation, and Epidemiological Estimates

This study aimed to evaluate the practical utility of respondent-driven sampling (RDS) among regular tobacco and alcohol users in Taipei, Taiwan.

RDS was implemented from 2007 to 2010 to recruit seed individuals who were 18 to 50 years old, regular tobacco and alcohol users, and currently residing in Taipei. Each respondent was asked to refer up to five friends known to be regular tobacco smokers and alcohol drinkers to participate in the present study. Information pertaining to drug use was collected using an audio computer-assisted self-interview instrument. RDSAT software was used for data analyses.

The prevalence estimates of illegal-drug-using behaviors attained equilibrium after three to five recruitment waves. Nearly one-fifth of the participants had ever used illegal drugs, of whom over 60% were polydrug users. The RDS-adjusted prevalences of illegal-drug-using behaviors among early-onset smokers were all two or three times higher than those among late-onset smokers.

Our results provided an empirical basis for the practicality and feasibility of using RDS to estimate illegal drug use prevalence among regular tobacco and alcohol users.

Below:  Proportions of lifetime and past-year use in the accumulated RDS sample at each recruitment wave for individual illegal drug use and combination use (single drug, poly drug not involving hard drugs [ie, heroin or methamphetamine], and poly drug involving hard drugs): a) ketamine; b) ecstasy; c) marijuana; d) methamphetamine; e) heroin; and f) poly-drug in the RDS sample (n = 1115). A vertical dashed line indicates the boundary beyond which the sample proportion started to converge to the equilibrium (ie, difference <0.02). The assessment of equilibrium was tested using software RDSAT

Full article at: http://goo.gl/PT9W89

By: Te-Tien Ting,1,2 Chuan-Yu Chen,2,3,4 Yu-Shu Tsai,1 Yen-Tyng Chen,1,5 Lien-Wen Su,6 and Wei J. Chen1,3,7

¹Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

²Center of Neuropsychiatric Research, National Health Research Institutes, Zhunan, Miaoli County, Taiwan

³Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

⁴Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

⁵Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, USA

⁶Department of Addiction Science, Taipei City Hospital, Songde Branch, Taipei, Taiwan

⁷Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

Address for correspondence. Wei J. Chen, Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan (e-mail: wt.ude.utn@nehcjw).

  

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