• Lisa Grazina Johnston, Rasheda Khanam, Masud Reza, Sharful Islam Khan, Sarah Banu, Md Shah Alam, Mahmudur Rahman, and Tasnim Azim.
• Family Health International, Dhaka, Bangladesh. lsjohnston@comcast.net
• AIDS Behav. 2008 Mar 1; 12 (2): 294-304.

AbstractThis paper evaluates the effectiveness of respondent driven sampling (RDS) to sample males who have sex with males (MSM) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A major objective for conducting this survey was to determine whether RDS can be a viable sampling method for future routine serologic and behavioral surveillance of MSM as well as other socially networked, hard to reach populations in Bangladesh. We assessed the feasibility of RDS (survey duration; MSM social network properties; number and types of initial recruits) to recruit a diverse group of MSM, the efficacy of an innovative technique (systematic coupon reduction) to manage the implementation and completion of the RDS recruitment process and reasons why MSM participated or did not participate. The findings provide useful information for improving RDS field techniques and demonstrate that RDS is an effective sampling method for recruiting diverse groups of MSM to participate in HIV related serologic and behavioral surveys in Dhaka.

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