Development of the network scale-up method for size estimation on hard-to-count populations

Abstract

Network scale-up (NSU) method which based on the theory of social network in sociology is a new method developed recently mainly to estimate the sizes of hard-to-count populations. It is easy to conduct into practice, since the process requires only contacting with the general population and not specifically with the hidden and hard-to-count population. The method is relatively inexpensive and offers the advantage of being able to estimate the sizes of several different populations in a single survey. NSU seems to be a promising method in estimating sizes of hard-to-count populations. The introduction in aspects of background, theory and recently research development about NSU are reviewed. Key words: Epidemiology; Population size; Estimation; Methods