JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Capture-recapture is often used to estimate the size of populations at risk for HIV, including female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs. These population size estimates are critical in determining resource allocation for HIV services geared toward these communities.

Objective:

Compared to the commonly used two-source capture-recapture, capture-recapture relying on three (or more) samples can provide more robust PSE but involve far more complex statistical analysis. shinyrecap is designed to provide a user-friendly interface for the field epidemiologist.

Methods:

shinyrecap is built on the Shiny web application framework for R. This allows it to seamlessly integrate with the sophisticated CRC statistical packages. Additionally, the application may be accessed online or run locally on the user’s machine.

Results:

The application enables users to engage in sample size calculation based on a simulation framework. It assists in the proper formatting of collected data by providing a tool to convert commonly used formats to that used by analysis software. A wide variety of methodologies are supported by the analysis tool, including log-linear, Bayesian model averaging, and Bayesian latent class models. For each methodology, diagnostics and model checking interfaces are provided.

Conclusions:

Through a use case, we demonstrate the broad utility of this powerful tool with three-source capture-recapture data to produce population size estimation for female sex workers in a subnational unit of a country in sub-Saharan Africa.