Public Health Forum Schedule Fall 2008

PAST SEMINARSHONGJIE LIU, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Community Health Virginia Commonwealth University – Medical Center "Application of respondent-driven sampling among men who have sex with men in China"  

ABSTRACT

One of the challenges in studying HIV-risk behaviors among men who have sex with men (MSM) is collecting data from a non-biased sample. A population of MSM is “hidden” because no sampling frame exists and public disclosure of membership is potentially threatening. Consequently, traditional probabilitysampling methods cannot be applied in this population. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) has been proposed as a reliable method to recruit hidden populations. This presentation includes two parts, introduction of the principle of RDS and illustration of its application among MSM in China.