@Article{info:doi/10.2196/jmir.6593,
author="Admon, Lindsay
and Haefner, Jessica K
and Kolenic, Giselle E
and Chang, Tammy
and Davis, Matthew M
and Moniz, Michelle H",
title="Recruiting Pregnant Patients for Survey Research: A Head to Head Comparison of Social Media-Based Versus Clinic-Based Approaches",
journal="J Med Internet Res",
year="2016",
month="Dec",
day="21",
volume="18",
number="12",
pages="e326",
keywords="pregnant women; surveys and questionnaires; methods; social media",
abstract="Background: Recruiting a diverse sample of pregnant women for clinical research is a challenging but crucial task for improving obstetric services and maternal and child health outcomes. Objective: To compare the feasibility and cost of recruiting pregnant women for survey research using social media-based and clinic-based approaches. Methods: Advertisements were used to recruit pregnant women from the social media website Facebook. In-person methods were used to recruit pregnant women from the outpatient clinic of a large, tertiary care center. In both approaches, potential respondents were invited to participate in a 15-minute Web-based survey. Each recruitment method was monitored for 1 month. Using bivariate statistics, we compared the number, demographic characteristics, and health characteristics of women recruited and the cost per completed survey for each recruitment method. Results: The social media-based approach recruited 1178 women and the clinic-based approach recruited 219 women. A higher proportion of subjects recruited through social media identified as African American (29.4{\%}, 207/705 vs 11.2{\%}, 20/179), reported household incomes <US {\$}30,000 per year (56.8{\%}, 409/720 vs 25.8{\%}, 47/182), reported being in early pregnancy (18.6{\%}, 135/726 vs 10.4{\%}, 19/183 first trimester), and rated their health as fair or poor (22.2{\%}, 160/722 vs 8.2{\%}, 15/183; all P<.001). A smaller proportion of subjects recruited through social media had earned a college degree (21.3{\%}, 153/717 vs 62.3{\%}, 114/183) and were married or in a domestic partnership (45.7{\%}, 330/722 vs 72.1{\%}, 132/183; all P<.001). Social media-based recruitment costs were US {\$}14.63 per completed survey, compared with US {\$}23.51 for clinic-based recruitment. Conclusions: Web-based recruitment through a social networking platform is a feasible, inexpensive, and rapid means of recruiting a large, diverse sample of pregnant women for survey research. ",
issn="1438-8871",
doi="10.2196/jmir.6593",
url="http://www.jmir.org/2016/12/e326/",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6593",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28003174"
}