Utility of Digital Respondent Driven Sampling to Recruit Community-Dwelling Emerging Adults for Assessment of Drinking and Related Risks

Highlights • Efficacious alcohol interventions with college drinkers are well established. • Emerging adult (EA) risky drinkers in communities are harder to reach. • Peer-driven Respondent Driven Sampling was adapted to a digital platform (d-RDS) • d-RDS recruited EAs at risk on drinking practices and alcohol-related consequences. • d-RDS offers a tool to extend alcohol interventions to this underserved risk group.
Introduction Emerging adulthood often entails heightened risk-taking, including risky drinking, and research is needed to guide intervention development and delivery. This study adapted Respondent Driven Sampling, a peer-driven recruitment method, to a digital platform (d-RDS) and evaluated its utility to recruit community-dwelling emerging adult (EA) risky drinkers, who are under-served and more difficult to reach for assessment and intervention than their college student peers. Materials and methods Community-dwelling EA risky drinkers (N = 357) were recruited using d-RDS (M age = 23.6 years, 64.0% women). Peers recruited peers in an iterative fashion. Participants completed a web-based cross-sectional survey of drinking practices and problems and associated risk and protective factors. Results d-RDS successfully recruited EA risky drinkers. On average, the sample reported recent drinking exceeding low-risk drinking guidelines and 8.80 negative consequences in the past three months. Compared to age-matched respondents from the representative U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the sample reported more past month drinking days and more drinks consumed per drinking day (ps < .001). At higher consumption levels, predicted positive associations were found with lower education and receipt of public assistance. Conclusions Results supported the utility of d-RDS as a sampling method and grassroots platform for research and intervention with community-dwelling EA drinkers who are harder to reach than traditional college students. The study provides a method and lays an empirical foundation for extending efficacious alcohol brief interventions with college drinkers to this underserved population.