H2R Newsletter

Welcome!

This newsletter aims to keep those involved in research with hard-to-reach (H2R) populations up-to-date on the most recent methods, training opportunities, and publications. The goal is to create not only a useful resource for those involved in H2R population research but also a place where we can all connect around our common goal of reaching H2R populations for better service. A newsletter will be sent every month, and we hope this becomes a useful resource for you. Any feedback or contributions are always welcome.     

 H2R Team

H2R Students

Serge Atherwood

"Dating violence among teens: Can an educational program intervention reduce the risk?"

Laic Beugre

"Describing MPOX vaccine uptake among minoritized MSM in San Francisco"

Sarah Gallalee

"Effectiveness of interventions for malaria high-risk populations in Senegal"

Mohammad Rifat Haider

"Psychosocial Correlates of Awareness of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV among Persons Who Inject Drugs in Northeast Georgia"

Roman Johnson

"Exploring the Role of Mental Health Status on HIV Testing Across Race/Ethnicity and Gender"

Kevin Lee

"Estimating Wage Theft Among Low-Wage Retail Food Workers in Santa Clara County"

Seyed Sina Neshat

"Health and life study of Afghan Refugees in California"

Said Iftekhar Sadaat

"Uptake of COVID-19 vaccination and its Factors among people who inject drugs: Evidence from National HIV Behavioural Surveillance San Francisco 2022"

Abubaker Saeed

"Estimating HIV Incidence Among People Who Inject Drugs in San Francisco, California"

H2R Mentors

Alexander Marr

Mentored Roman Johnson, Seyed Sina Neshat, and Said Iftekhar Sadaat

Renee Mehra

Mentored Serge Atherwood, Mohammad Rifat Haider, and Kevin Lee

Jennifer Smith

Mentored Laic Beugre, Sarah Gallalee, and Abubaker Saeed

Additional Thanks to H2R Faculty

H2R Application is open!

The application is open (due March 31, 2024) for enrolling the 2^nd cohort of students and mentors to H2R.

LINK to the application

Website includes an application overview

H2R Methods & Quality Checklist

This section provides a brief review of H2R methods and a checklist to improve their quality. We start with mapping and enumeration.

Overview

One of the methods to find the locations and estimate the population size of hard-to-reach (H2R) populations is mapping and enumeration. This method requires a comprehensive list of physical venues where the H2R population meets or works which will be generated through interviews with key informants is required. All or a random selection of the reported venues will be visited for direct observation, counting, and/or surveys of the H2R members attending the venues.

Advantages

1. It can be conducted as part of an (IBBS) survey with time location sampling
2. Tend to produce robust estimates
3. Count target groups that are visible and could be reached for services

Weaknessses

It has three assumptions and limitations:

1. Mobility, duplication, and absences of the H2R population at the hotspots/venues may produce over or underestimated counting
2. Requires going to the field, so safety is always an issue
3. Hard, labor-intensive, and expensive to conduct at the national level.

Possible Biases

Underreporting as it is only able to count the visible part of the H2R population.

Mapping and Enumeration Quality Checklist

• The list of all venues is comprehensive and updated, and each venue has an accurate location address and time/day for the peak (attended by the highest number of H2R population)
• Consider mapping virtual platforms [1] to estimate the population size if a considerable number of the H2R population uses the internet to find (sexual) partners or clients.
• All venues or a large representative sample of venues were visited for enumeration at their peak time.
• The mobility of the member of H2R across venues is limited or an adjustment for mobility [2] was done to reduce double counting.
• Adjustment for mobility: In each venue, if a proportion (P) of a key population visits more than one venue (average of M) on a peak day, consider adjustment of the size (S) of that venue by a factor of (1 – P + P/M). (P = proportion of a key population visiting more than one hotspot, M = average number of hotspots they visit on a peak day). So, for each venue, the adjusted size = (Crude Venue Size) x (1-P+P/M).
• If venues are not visited at their peak time/day or not visited at high season, consider adjustment for peak time and seasonality effect [3].
• If a proportion (q) of an H2R population is “hidden” i.e., do not visit venues, consider adjustment of your population size estimates by a factor of 1 / q (q = proportion of an H2R population in the IBBS survey who said that they do visit venues).So, Adjusted PSE = (crude PSE) X (1/q)

[1] Emmanuel F, Kioko J, Musyoki H, Kaosa S, Ongaro MK, Kuria S, Olango K, Musimbi J, Walimbwa J, Blanchard J, Isac S, Bhattacharjee P. Mapping virtual platforms to estimate the population size of men who have sex with men (MSM) who use internet to find sexual partners: implications to enhance HIV prevention among MSM in Kenya. Gates Open Res. 2020 Dec 10;4:131.

[2] Bozicevic I, Manathunge A, Dominkovic Z, Beneragama S, Kriitmaa K. Estimating the population size of female sex workers and transgender women in Sri Lanka. PLoS One. 2020 Jan 15;15(1):e0227689.

[3] Rasheed A, Sharifi H, Wesson P, Pashtoon SJ, Tavakoli F, Ghalekhani N, Haghdoost AA, Atarud A, Banehsi MR, Hamdard N, Sadaat SI, McFarland W, Mirzazadeh A. Mapping and population size estimates of people who inject drugs in Afghanistan in 2019: Synthesis of multiple methods. PLoS One. 2022 Jan 28;17(1):e0262405.

Data Request

H2R Team Achievements

Publications

This section has links to our recent papers on H2R populations and methods:

• Evaluating a Targeted Minimum Loss-based Estimator for Capture-Recapture Analysis: An Application to HIV Surveillance in San Francisco, CA. Wesson P, Das M, Chen M, Hsu L, McFarland W, Kennedy E, Jewell NP. Am J Epidemiol. 2023 Nov 17:kwad231.

• Increase in human immunodeficiency virus and syphilis prevalence and incidence among men who have sex with men, Vietnam 2015 - 2020. Thanh Nguyen HT, Nguyen LT, Thanh Hoang HT, Bui DH, Thu Phan HT, Van Khuu N, Hong Ngo HT, Dang DA, Mirzazadeh A, McFarland W, Pham TH. Int J STD AIDS. 2023 Nov 15:9564624231214583.

H2R Studies

In this section, we list recent/ongoing H2R studies in which our team is involved.

• Mapping and Size Estimation of Five Key Populations, and National Survey of Male Labor Migrants in Nepal in 2024 (Ali Mirzazadeh: Technical Consultant)