Indirect Methods of Estimating Drug User Population Size

This article discusses indirect methods of estimating the number of drug users. A major characteristic of the drug users is that they are hard-to-access and hard-to-identify populations. Prevalence estimates arising from surveys are usually based on sampling and self-reporting of drug-taking behavior. Because of selection and measurement biases, they are considered inadequate and inappropriate for estimating the number of drug users. An alternative approach is to use indirect techniques to estimate the number of drug users. Indirect methods use the specific drug user lists and lists of drug-related behaviors that are available and begin by recognizing the inadequacies of registries and other existing data sources. multiplier-benchmark and capture-recapture are two indirect methods which are used in estimation of the size of drug user populations.