Network-Based Research on Rural Opioid Use: an Overview of Methods and Lessons Learned

The purpose of this paper is to provide a thorough overview of methods used for recruitment, network data collection, and network data management in a network-based study of rural people who use drugs (PWUD) and to offer methodological recommendations for future research on rural drug use. The Social Networks among Appalachian People (SNAP) study recruited a cohort of 503 rural PWUD via respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and has retained more than 80% of eligible participants over 7-9 years. SNAP has yielded important methodological insights, including that (1) RDS referral was non-random and disproportionately involved kin and (2) interviewer-administered questionnaires were successful in eliciting accurate name and age information about network members. The SNAP experience suggests that RDS was a successful recruitment strategy for rural PWUD and questionnaires administered by community-based interviewers in the context of a Certificate of Confidentiality could elicit detailed data on PWUD risk networks.