HIV and hepatitis C prevalence, and related risk behaviours among people who inject drugs in three cities in Croatia: Findings from respondent-driven sampling surveys

Hepatitis C bio-behavioural surveys in people who inject drugs—a systematic review of sensitivity to the theoretical assumptions of respondent driven sampling

“…Nineteen studies (70%) described the number of seeds used to initiate recruitment (range 2 to 82) although only two met the STROBE-RDS checklist by describing clearly how many seeds were added to boost recruitment after the survey had started [33, 34]. The data from one survey could not be used to calculate a population prevalence for HCV because too many seeds had been needed to reach the target sample size [28].…”

“…Other studies expressed concerns about the non-recruitment of participants from particular ethnic backgrounds [32], socio-economic groups [28] or geographical areas [32, 33]. To test recruitment bias, three studies (11%) reported measuring homophily for selected characteristics between recruits and recruiters [24, 29, 34] and in one homophily between persons with a known HCV-positive status was recorded [24]. …”

“…Sixteen studies (59%) described the venue used for the survey, and one reported concerns that the venue may have influenced participation [34]. The incentives used for recruiting others to the survey were also described in 21 studies (78%), and 19 of these described a financial primary and secondary incentive, the value for which ranged from $50 and $20, respectively, in the USA [38] and $1 and $0.8 in India [19, 35].…”

“…The incentives used for recruiting others to the survey were also described in 21 studies (78%), and 19 of these described a financial primary and secondary incentive, the value for which ranged from $50 and $20, respectively, in the USA [38] and $1 and $0.8 in India [19, 35]. Where reported, the remaining surveys used gifts or food coupons [30, 34, 39]. A single survey expressed concern that the financial incentive may have led to bias towards poorer PWID and one did not use a secondary incentive for this reason [30].…”

Results of the 3d Treatment and Model of Elimination of HCV Infection in Croatia

“…4,5 Međutim, prevalencija je znatno viša u rizičnim skupinama, a to su ponajprije intravenski korisnici droga u kojih je u Hrvatskoj utvrđena prevalencija i do 65%. 6 Incidencija novootkrivenih anti-HCV-pozitivnih osoba u Hrvatskoj, na temelju obvezatnih prijava zaraznih bolesti, tijekom devedesetih godina postupno je rasla; u razdoblju od 2000. do 2007. godine iznosila je oko 400 prijava na godinu, a nakon 2008. godine dolazi do postupnog pada broja prijava te se danas prijavljuje do 200 novootkrivenih anti--HCV-pozitivnih osoba na godinu. 7 Posljednjih godina primjećuju se novi trendovi u epidemiologiji kroničnog hepatitisa C: raste dob novootkrivenih bolesnika, povećava se udio bolesnika s uznapredovalim stadijima fi broze i ciroze te raste broj bolesnika s hepatocelularnim karcinomom.…”