Can Facebook Be Used for Research? Experiences Using Facebook to Recruit Pregnant Women for a Randomized Controlled Trial
Can Facebook Be Used for Research? Experiences Using Facebook to Recruit Pregnant Women for a Randomized Controlled Trial
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DOI：
10.2196/jmir.6404
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发表时间：
2016-09-01
影响因子：
7.4
通讯作者：
Bell, Rhonda C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Adam, Laura M.;Manca, Donna P.;Bell, Rhonda C.
背景：在任何人类研究研究中，招聘往往都是一个困难和昂贵的部分。社交媒体和其他新兴的大众传播手段有望成为招募参与者的传统战略的补充，因为它们可以在短时间内接触到大量的人。由于能够瞄准特定的受众，Facebook付费广告有可能接触到特定人群的未来研究参与者。本文描述了在艾伯塔省埃德蒙顿进行的一项随机对照试验的经验，该试验试图招募怀孕8到20周的健康孕妇参加产前研究。目的：通过随机对照试验，评价Facebook上付费广告作为招聘孕妇平台的有效性，并与传统招聘方式进行比较。方法：使用传统方式招聘7个月，而Facebook广告共26天。感兴趣的女性被提示联系研究工作人员进行筛选，以确定研究资格。与每种征聘办法相关的费用都被记录下来，并用来计算征聘合格参与者的费用。结果：在115名女性中，39.1%(n=45)的研究人员通过Facebook听说了这项研究，而60.9%(n=70)的女性通过传统的招聘途径听说了这项研究。在使用传统方法的215天(相当于7个月)期间，平均利率为0.3(0.2)妇女/天，而Facebook广告的26天导致平均利率为2.8(1.7)妇女/天。脸书上的广告费用为506.91加元，每个合格参与者的费用为20.28加元。相比之下，传统方法的成本为1087美元，每个合格参与者的成本约为24.15美元。两种招聘方式的女性人口统计特征相似，但使用Facebook招聘的女性怀孕时间明显早于使用传统招聘方法的女性(P
Background: Recruitment is often a difficult and costly part of any human research study. Social media and other emerging means of mass communication hold promise as means to complement traditional strategies used for recruiting participants because they can reach a large number of people in a short amount of time. With the ability to target a specified audience, paid Facebook advertisements have potential to reach future research participants of a specific demographic. This paper describes the experiences of a randomized controlled trial in Edmonton, Alberta, attempting to recruit healthy pregnant women between 8 and 20 weeks' gestation for participation in a prenatal study. Various traditional recruitment approaches, in addition to paid Facebook advertisements were trialed.Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of paid advertisements on Facebook as a platform for recruiting pregnant women to a randomized controlled trial in comparison with traditional recruitment approaches.Methods: Recruitment using traditional approaches occurred for 7 months, whereas Facebook advertisements ran for a total of 26 days. Interested women were prompted to contact the study staff for a screening call to determine study eligibility. Costs associated with each recruitment approach were recorded and used to calculate the cost to recruit eligible participants. Performance of Facebook advertisements was monitored using Facebook Ads Manager.Results: Of the 115 women included, 39.1% (n=45) of the women who contacted study staff heard about the study through Facebook, whereas 60.9% (n=70) of them heard about it through traditional recruitment approaches. During the 215 days (similar to 7 months) that the traditional approaches were used, the average rate of interest was 0.3 (0.2) women/day, whereas the 26 days of Facebook advertisements resulted in an average rate of interest of 2.8 (1.7) women/day. Facebook advertisements cost Can $506.91 with a cost per eligible participant of Cad $20.28. In comparison, the traditional approaches cost Cad $1087, with approximately Cad $24.15 per eligible participant. Demographic characteristics of women were similar between the 2 recruitment methods except that women recruited using Facebook were significantly earlier in their pregnancy than those recruited using traditional approaches (P