title: Sampling methodologies for epidemiologic surveillance of men who have sex with men and transgender women in Latin America: an empiric comparison of convenience sampling, time space sampling, and respondent driven sampling.
abstract: Alternatives to convenience sampling (CS) are needed for HIV/STI surveillance of most-at-risk populations in Latin America. We compared CS, time space sampling (TSS), and respondent driven sampling (RDS) for recruitment of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW) in Lima, Peru. During concurrent 60-day periods from June-August, 2011, we recruited MSM/TW for epidemiologic surveillance using CS, TSS, and RDS. A total of 748 participants were recruited through CS, 233 through TSS, and 127 through RDS. The TSS sample included the largest proportion of TW (30.7 %) and the lowest percentage of subjects who had previously participated in HIV/STI research (14.9 %). The prevalence of newly diagnosed HIV infection, according to participants' self-reported previous HIV diagnosis, was highest among TSS recruits (17.9 %) compared with RDS (12.6 %) and CS (10.2 %). TSS identified diverse populations of MSM/TW with higher prevalences of HIV/STIs not accessed by other methods.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases and Program in Global Health, Department of Medicine, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, 10833 Leconte Avenue, CHS 37-121, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA, jlclark@mednet.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Konda
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silva-Santisteban
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peinado
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Lama
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kusunoki
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perez-Brumer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pun
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cabello
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Sebastian
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Suarez-Ognio
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sanchez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010568:Peru / Q000453:epidemiology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D063106:Transgender Persons