TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of online recruitment strategies in a randomized trial of cancer survivors
AU - Juraschek, Stephen P.
AU - Plante, Timothy B.
AU - Charleston, Jeanne
AU - Miller, Edgar R.
AU - Yeh, Hsin Chieh
AU - Appel, Lawrence J.
AU - Jerome, Gerald J.
AU - Gayles, Debra
AU - Durkin, Nowella
AU - White, Karen
AU - Dalcin, Arlene
AU - Hermosilla, Manuel
N1 - Funding Information:
SPIRIT was supported by the Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund (CRF) Program. SPJ was supported by grants NIH/NIDDK T32DK007732-20 and NIH/NHLBI K23HL13527301. TBP was supported by grants HRSA T32HP10025B0 and NIH/NHLBI 2T32HL007180-41A1.This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov, number: NCT02431676.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Background/Aims: Despite widespread Internet adoption, online advertising remains an underutilized tool to recruit participants into clinical trials. Whether online advertising is a cost-effective method to enroll participants compared to other traditional forms of recruitment is not known. Methods: Recruitment for the Survivorship Promotion In Reducing IGF-1 Trial, a community-based study of cancer survivors, was conducted from June 2015 through December 2016 via in-person community fairs, advertisements in periodicals, and direct postal mailings. In addition, “Right Column” banner ads were purchased from Facebook to direct participants to the Survivorship Promotion In Reducing IGF-1 Trial website. Response rates, costs of traditional and online advertisements, and demographic data were determined and compared across different online and traditional recruitment strategies. Micro-trials optimizing features of online advertisements were also explored. Results: Of the 406 respondents to our overall outreach efforts, 6% (24 of 406) were referred from online advertising. Facebook advertisements were shown over 3 million times (impressions) to 124,476 people, which resulted in 4401 clicks on our advertisement. Of these, 24 people ultimately contacted study staff, 6 underwent prescreening, and 4 enrolled in the study. The cost of online advertising per enrollee was $794 when targeting a general population versus $1426 when accounting for strategies that specifically targeted African Americans or men. By contrast, community fairs, direct mail, or periodicals cost $917, $799, or $436 per enrollee, respectively. Utilization of micro-trials to assess online ads identified subtleties (e.g. use of an advertisement title) that substantially impacted viewer interest in our trial. Conclusion: Online advertisements effectively directed a relevant population to our website, which resulted in new enrollees in the Survivorship Promotion In Reducing IGF-1 Trial at a cost comparable to traditional methods. Costs were substantially greater with online recruitment when targeting under-represented populations, however. Additional research using online micro-trial tools is needed to evaluate means of more precise recruitment to improve yields in under-represented groups. Potential gains from faster recruitment speed remain to be determined.
AB - Background/Aims: Despite widespread Internet adoption, online advertising remains an underutilized tool to recruit participants into clinical trials. Whether online advertising is a cost-effective method to enroll participants compared to other traditional forms of recruitment is not known. Methods: Recruitment for the Survivorship Promotion In Reducing IGF-1 Trial, a community-based study of cancer survivors, was conducted from June 2015 through December 2016 via in-person community fairs, advertisements in periodicals, and direct postal mailings. In addition, “Right Column” banner ads were purchased from Facebook to direct participants to the Survivorship Promotion In Reducing IGF-1 Trial website. Response rates, costs of traditional and online advertisements, and demographic data were determined and compared across different online and traditional recruitment strategies. Micro-trials optimizing features of online advertisements were also explored. Results: Of the 406 respondents to our overall outreach efforts, 6% (24 of 406) were referred from online advertising. Facebook advertisements were shown over 3 million times (impressions) to 124,476 people, which resulted in 4401 clicks on our advertisement. Of these, 24 people ultimately contacted study staff, 6 underwent prescreening, and 4 enrolled in the study. The cost of online advertising per enrollee was $794 when targeting a general population versus $1426 when accounting for strategies that specifically targeted African Americans or men. By contrast, community fairs, direct mail, or periodicals cost $917, $799, or $436 per enrollee, respectively. Utilization of micro-trials to assess online ads identified subtleties (e.g. use of an advertisement title) that substantially impacted viewer interest in our trial. Conclusion: Online advertisements effectively directed a relevant population to our website, which resulted in new enrollees in the Survivorship Promotion In Reducing IGF-1 Trial at a cost comparable to traditional methods. Costs were substantially greater with online recruitment when targeting under-represented populations, however. Additional research using online micro-trial tools is needed to evaluate means of more precise recruitment to improve yields in under-represented groups. Potential gains from faster recruitment speed remain to be determined.
KW - Facebook
KW - Internet
KW - online
KW - recruitment
KW - trial
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85041377003&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85041377003&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1740774517745829
DO - 10.1177/1740774517745829
M3 - Article
C2 - 29361843
AN - SCOPUS:85041377003
SN - 1740-7745
VL - 15
SP - 130
EP - 138
JO - Clinical Trials
JF - Clinical Trials
IS - 2
ER -