The sensitivity of respondent-driven sampling
The sensitivity of respondent-driven sampling
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-985x.2011.00711.x
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发表时间：
2012-01-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Liljeros, Fredrik
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lu, Xin;Bengtsson, Linus;Liljeros, Fredrik
.许多科学领域的研究人员从个人到更大的群体进行推断。然而，对于许多群体来说，没有成员名单可供随机抽样。回应者驱动抽样（RDS）是一种相对较新的抽样方法，它通过使用所研究群体的社交网络来规避这一困难。RDS方法已被证明在某些条件下提供人口比例的无偏估计。该方法目前广泛用于全球高危人群中的人类免疫缺陷病毒相关研究。我们测试的RDS方法，通过模拟RDS研究的社交网络的一个大型女同性恋，男同性恋，双性恋和变性人的网络社区。的RDS方法的鲁棒性进行了测试违反，一个接一个，该方法提供无偏估计的条件下。模拟表明，如果网络是直接的，或者受访者选择邀请与研究结果相关的特征的基础上的人，偏见是大的。如果参与者邀请亲近的朋友而不是更远的朋友，则偏差和方差会增加，而在更密集的网络中采样则会大幅降低方差。然而，RDS方法表现出很强的阻力，抽样没有更换，低响应率和一定的错误，在参与者报告他们的网络规模，以及选择标准的种子。同时讨论了网络结构、种子数和优惠券数等因素的影响。
. Researchers in many scientific fields make inferences from individuals to larger groups. For many groups, however, there is no list of members from which to draw a random sample. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) is a relatively new sampling methodology that circumvents this difficulty by using the social networks of the groups under study. The RDS method has been shown to provide unbiased estimates of population proportions given certain conditions. The method is now widely used in human immunodeficiency virus related studies among high risk populations globally. We test the RDS methodology by simulating RDS studies on the social networks of a large Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Web community. The robustness of the RDS method is tested by violating, one by one, the conditions under which the method provides unbiased estimates. Simulations indicate that the bias is large if networks are directed or respondents choose to invite people on the basis of characteristics that are correlated with the study outcomes. The bias and variance increase if participants invite close as opposed to more distant friends whereas sampling in denser networks sharply reduces variance. However, the RDS method shows strong resistance to sampling without replacement, low response rates and certain errors in the participants reporting of their network sizes, as well as the selection criteria of seeds. The effects of network structure and the number of seeds and coupons are also discussed.