TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing network scale-up estimates for groups most at risk of HIV/AIDS
T2 - Evidence from a multiple-method study of heavy drug users in Curitiba, Brazil
AU - Salganik, Matthew J.
AU - Fazito, Dimitri
AU - Bertoni, Neilane
AU - Abdo, Alexandre H.
AU - Mello, Maeve B.
AU - Bastos, Francisco I.
PY - 2011/11/15
Y1 - 2011/11/15
N2 - One of the many challenges hindering the global response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic is the difficulty of collecting reliable information about the populations most at risk for the disease. Thus, the authors empirically assessed a promising new method for estimating the sizes of most at-risk populations: the network scale-up method. Using 4 different data sources, 2 of which were from other researchers, the authors produced 5 estimates of the number of heavy drug users in Curitiba, Brazil. The authors found that the network scale-up and generalized network scale-up estimators produced estimates 5-10 times higher than estimates made using standard methods (the multiplier method and the direct estimation method using data from 2004 and 2010). Given that equally plausible methods produced such a wide range of results, the authors recommend that additional studies be undertaken to compare estimates based on the scale-up method with those made using other methods. If scale-up-based methods routinely produce higher estimates, this would suggest that scale-up-based methods are inappropriate for populations most at risk of HIV/AIDS or that standard methods may tend to underestimate the sizes of these populations.
AB - One of the many challenges hindering the global response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic is the difficulty of collecting reliable information about the populations most at risk for the disease. Thus, the authors empirically assessed a promising new method for estimating the sizes of most at-risk populations: the network scale-up method. Using 4 different data sources, 2 of which were from other researchers, the authors produced 5 estimates of the number of heavy drug users in Curitiba, Brazil. The authors found that the network scale-up and generalized network scale-up estimators produced estimates 5-10 times higher than estimates made using standard methods (the multiplier method and the direct estimation method using data from 2004 and 2010). Given that equally plausible methods produced such a wide range of results, the authors recommend that additional studies be undertaken to compare estimates based on the scale-up method with those made using other methods. If scale-up-based methods routinely produce higher estimates, this would suggest that scale-up-based methods are inappropriate for populations most at risk of HIV/AIDS or that standard methods may tend to underestimate the sizes of these populations.
KW - HIV
KW - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
KW - epidemiologic methods
KW - network sampling
KW - population size estimation
KW - social networks
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U2 - 10.1093/aje/kwr246
DO - 10.1093/aje/kwr246
M3 - Article
C2 - 22003188
AN - SCOPUS:80655144775
SN - 0002-9262
VL - 174
SP - 1190
EP - 1196
JO - American Journal of Epidemiology
JF - American Journal of Epidemiology
IS - 10
ER -