Combining the randomized response technique and the network scale-up method to estimate the female sex worker population size: an exploratory study.

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Recall bias, barrier effects, transmission error, and response bias affecting the network scale-up method (NSUM) led the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization to designate NSUM as a developing method for estimating the size of high-risk populations in 2010. The method has subsequently been adjusted for three of these biases. The present study, therefore, aimed to explore the combination of the randomized response technique (RRT) and NSUM to adjust the last remaining bias. RRT was used in an NSUM survey to estimate the population proportion of female sex workers (FSWs) in Taiyuan, China, in 2012. Multiplier method estimates and national-level estimates of the population proportion of FSWs were used as criteria to assess the aforementioned results. Successful interviews were completed with 96.4% of the respondents selected for the NSUM survey. The NSUM estimate fell within the range of the national-level estimates of the population proportion of FSWs in Asia and was close to the estimate yielded by the multiplier method. In the present study, the combination of RRT and NSUM obtained a high response rate and produced a reliable estimate of the size of a high-risk population.