LATENT DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE ESTIMATION IN HARD-TO-REACH GROUPS

The sampling frame in most social science surveys excludes members of certain groups, known as hard-to-reach groups. These groups, or subpopulations, may be difficult to access (the homeless, e.g.), camouflaged by stigma (individuals with HIV/AIDS), or both (commercial sex workers). Even basic demog...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The annals of applied statistics 2012-12, Vol.6 (4), p.1795-1813
Main Authors: McCormick, Tyler H., Zheng, Tian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aggregated relational data
Demography
Estimation methods
Estimators
Given names
hard-to-reach populations
hierarchical model
Men
Population estimates
social network
Social networking
Suicide
survey design
Violence against women
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Summary:The sampling frame in most social science surveys excludes members of certain groups, known as hard-to-reach groups. These groups, or subpopulations, may be difficult to access (the homeless, e.g.), camouflaged by stigma (individuals with HIV/AIDS), or both (commercial sex workers). Even basic demographic information about these groups is typically unknown, especially in many developing nations. We present statistical models which leverage social network structure to estimate demographic characteristics of these subpopulations using Aggregated relational data (ARD), or questions of the form "How many X's do you know?" Unlike other network-based techniques for reaching these groups, ARD require no special sampling strategy and are easily incorporated into standard surveys. ARD also do not require respondents to reveal their own group membership. We propose a Bayesian hierarchical model for estimating the demographic characteristics of hard-to-reach groups, or latent demographic profiles, using ARD. We propose two estimation techniques. First, we propose a Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithm for existing data or cases where the full posterior distribution is of interest. For cases when new data can be collected, we propose guidelines and, based on these guidelines, propose a simple estimate motivated by a missing data approach. Using data from McCarty et al. [Human Organization 60 (2001) 28-39], we estimate the age and gender profiles of six hard-to-reach groups, such as individuals who have HIV, women who were raped, and homeless persons. We also evaluate our simple estimates using simulation studies.
ISSN:1932-6157
1941-7330
DOI:10.1214/12-AOAS569