Measuring a hidden population: A novel technique to estimate the population size of women with sexual violence-related pregnancies in South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Successive sampling (SS)-population size estimation (PSE) is a technique used to estimate the sizes of hidden populations using data collected in respondent-driven sampling (RDS) surveys. We assess past estimations and use new data from an RDS survey to calculate a new PSE. In 2012, 852 adult women in South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, who self-identified as survivors of sexual violence, resulting in a pregnancy, since the start of the war (in 1996) were sampled using RDS. We used imputed visibility, enrollment order, and prior estimates for PSE using SS-PSE in RDS Analyst. Prior estimates varied between Congolese local experts and researchers. We calculated the PSE of women with a sexual violence-related pregnancy in South Kivu using researchers' priors to be approximately 17,400. SS-PSE is an effective method for estimating the population sizes of hidden populations, useful for providing evidence for services and resource allocation. SS-PSE is beneficial because population sizes can be calculated after conducting the survey and do not rely on separate studies or additional data (as in network scale-up, multiplier, and capture-recapture methods).
Tulane University School of International Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Lisa G
LG
Johnston
Department of Statistics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Katherine R
KR
McLaughlin
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Shada A
SA
Rouhani
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Emergency Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. Electronic address: susanabartels@gmail.com.
Susan A
SA
Bartels
D000328:Adult; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011157:Population Dynamics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017741:Survivors; D055815:Young Adult
Democratic Republic of Congo; Hidden populations, pregnancy; Respondent-driven sampling; Sexual violence; Successive sampling-population size estimation
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