. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Apr 27.

Published in final edited form as: J Epidemiol Community Health. 2014 Apr 1;68(8):792–798. doi: 10.1136/jech-2014-203935

Table 1.

Example of data structure for analysis

Ego	Alter	RDS recruitment	Distance (km)	Covariate 1	Covariate 2
1	A	1	5	1	8
1	B	1	22	0	4
1	C	0	3	0	3
2	D	0	33	1	6
3	E	0	4	0	5
3	C	1	3	1	2
3	B	0	Excluded from analysis

In this example, ego 1 named three alters as network members, but only referred alters A and B into the study. The third alter (alter C) entered the study through referral from ego 3. Ego 2 was a non-generative seed, but did name a network member (alter D); therefore, ego 2 remains in the analysis because he/she is part of a network dyad. Ego 3 named alter B, but the dyad was not included in the analysis because alter B was not eligible for recruitment (ie, alter B had already been recruited by ego 1).

RDS, respondent-driven sampling.