A comparison of network sampling designs for a hidden population of drug users: Random walk vs. respondent-driven sampling.

Both random walk and respondent-driven sampling (RDS) exploit social networks and may reduce biases introduced by earlier methods for sampling from hidden populations. Although RDS has become much more widely used by social researchers than random walk (RW), there has been little discussion of the tradeoffs in choosing RDS over RW. This paper compares experiences of implementing RW and RDS to recruit drug users to a network-based study in Houston, Texas.

Health care among insured drug users and nonusers.

This paper analyzes data on medical needs, utilization, and access collected during 1997-1999 in Houston from 117 drug users and 55 nonusers living in the same neighborhoods. Results indicate that drug users in Houston did not have a different level of medical needs than did nonusers, nor were they disadvantaged in terms of utilization or access to medical services. Part of the difference in results from previous studies may be because the longitudinal design of the study selected for relatively stable drug users and nonusers (for example, all study participants reported some form of publicly funded health insurance).