Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Oct 25, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 21, 2022 - Dec 16, 2022
Date Accepted: Jan 9, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Accumulation of biological and behavioural data of female sex workers through surveys around the world, using respondent-driven sampling method: A Protocol for Systematic Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Respondent-driven Sampling (RDS) method is a non-probability sampling method that approximates probability sample design, allowing for extrapolating results to the target population. This method is generally used to address the limitations of studying hidden or hard-to-reach populations.
Objective:
The objective of the present article is to describe the initiation, implementation, and complications that arise during RDS on female sex workers (FSWs) around the world.
Methods:
Behavioural and biological data of FSWs collected through RDS was mined from peer-reviewed articles, published during 2010-2022. All available articles will be retrieved using PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane database, Scopus, Science Direct, and the Global Health network. Using the search terms “respondent-driven” or respondent-driven sampling” or “RDS” and “Female Sex workers” or “FSW” or “sex workers” or “SW”. The data will be extracted through data extraction form as per STROBE-RDS (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology for Respondent-Driven Sampling) guidelines and will be arranged into six sub-tables based on WHO classifications of regions. Risk of bias and quality assessment will be performed with the help of the Newcastle - Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale.
Results:
The future systematic review, will be generated from the present protocol, provide evidence in support or against the hypothesis that the application of RDS technique is most suitable approach to recruiting participants from “hidden” or “hard to reach” populations.
Conclusions:
The future systematic review, according to the present protocol will help researchers, policymakers and service providers to improve RDS methods for the surveillance of any key population by providing a minimum set of parameters of specific methodological, analytical, and testing procedures including RDS methods to evaluate the overall quality of any RDS survey. Clinical Trial: International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) number CRD42022346470.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.