Optimisation of the T-square sampling method to estimate population sizes 英文参考文献.docVIP

Emerging Themes in Epidemiology BioMedCentral Analytic perspective Open Access Optimisation of the T-square sampling method to estimate population sizes Kristof Bostoen*1, Zaid Chalabi2 and Rebecca F Grais3 Address: 1Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK, 2Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK and 3Epicentre, 8 rue Saint Sabin, 75011 Paris, France Email: Kristof Bostoen* - Kristof.Bostoen@lshtm.ac.uk; Zaid Chalabi - Zaid.Chalabi@lshtm.ac.uk; Rebecca F Grais - Rebecca.Grais@ * Corresponding author Published: 1 June 2007 Received: 29 September 2006 Accepted: 1 June 2007 Emerging Themes in Epidemiology 2007, 4:7 doi:10.1186/1742-7622-4-7 This article is available from: /content/4/1/7 ? 2007 Bostoen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Population size and density estimates are needed to plan resource requirements and plan health related interventions. Sampling frames are not always available necessitating surveys using non- standard household sampling methods. These surveys are time-consuming, difficult to validate, and their implementation could be optimised. Here, we discuss an example of an optimisation procedure for rapid population estimation using T-Square sampling which has been used recently to estimate population sizes in emergencies. A two-stage process was proposed to optimise the T- Square method wherein the first stage optimises the sample size and the second stage optimises the pathway connecting the sampling points. The proposed procedure yields an optimal solution if the d