Journal de l'alcoolisme et de la toxicomanie
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Characteristics and Health Service Utilization in Two Samples of Young Injection Drug Users Recruited Using Direct and Referral Methods in San Francisco, California

Alya Briceno, Meghan D Morris, Jennifer Evans, Fisher H Raymond

Background: Targeted sampling (TS) and respondent-driven sampling (RDS) methods are methods used to recruit ‘hard-to-reach’ populations. We examine similarities and differences in population characteristics and health service utilization, in two independent samples of young adult injection drug users (IDU).

Methods: Data from two samples of young adult (18-29 years) IDU sampled using RDS (N=31) and TS (N=97) in San Francisco, California were compared: (1) a cross-sectional study of IDU using RDS as part of the National HIV Behavioral Survey (NHBS) IDU-2 Study conducted by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, from May 2009 to December 2009; and (2) the UFO Study, an ongoing prospective study of young IDU that used TS methods to sample young IDU (<30 years) from May 2010 to December 2010.

Results: Compared to the TS sample, the RDS sample was more heterogeneous demographically: a higher proportion of women, and racial/ethnic diversity; a significantly larger proportion of the RDS sample (vs. TS) previously received an HIV test (98.6% vs. 88.5%) whereas the TS sample had a significantly higher prevalence of HCV (58.7% vs. 15.1%).

Conclusion: TS and RDS reached a similar cross section of the young adult IDU population in San Francisco; however, some notable differences were observed, especially in HCV infection prevalence. The findings highlight the need for continued efforts to improve sampling strategies aimed high risk IDU, so as to inform both public health surveillance, research and prevention interventions.