TY - JOUR PY - 2019// TI - Methodological considerations in using the Network Scale Up (NSU) for the estimation of risky behaviors of particular age-gender groups: an example in the case of intentional abortion JO - PLoS one A1 - Zamanian, Maryam A1 - Zolala, Farzaneh A1 - Haghdoost, Ali Akbar A1 - Haji-Maghsoudi, Saeide A1 - Heydari, Zeynab A1 - Baneshi, Mohammad Reza SP - e0217481 EP - e0217481 VL - 14 IS - 6 N2 - BACKGROUND: Network Scale Up (NSU) is a promising tool for size estimation of sensitive issues. In this study we investigated the important methodological considerations to employ this method for estimating behaviors, such as abortion, which happens in a particular age-gender group.

METHODS: We recruited 1250 males and 1250 females aged 18 to 50. Abortion rate was calculated through direct question and NSU methodology. The NSU was applied on three sub-samples (male, female and aggregate). Integrating replies to 25 reference groups, we estimated the network size (C) of respondents and its age-gender structure. To calculate the part of network that is subject to abortion, we compared two approaches: proportional and data based. The Visibility Factor (VF) was calculated through 222 females who had abortion. Direct estimate was considered as gold standard.

RESULTS: Using C's derived from proportional method, the Relative Bias (RB) in the male and female samples was 33% and 84%. Applying the data-based C's, the RB in the gender-specific and aggregate samples was 5% and 2%.

CONCLUSION: The proportional method overestimates the prevalence. The data-based method to calculate the C is superior. The determination of the age-sex distribution of the network and the specific VF is essential.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1932-6203 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217481 ID - ref1 ER -