Recruitment Strategies of Methamphetamine-Using Men Who Have Sex with Men into an Online Survey
- PMID: 25642143
- PMCID: PMC4310002
- DOI: 10.3109/14659891.2013.868936
Recruitment Strategies of Methamphetamine-Using Men Who Have Sex with Men into an Online Survey
Abstract
Recruiting hidden populations into online research remains challenging. In this manuscript, we report lessons learned from our efforts to recruit methamphetamine-using men who have sex with men. Between July and October 2012, we implemented a four-phase recruitment strategy to enroll a total of 343 methamphetamine-using MSM into an online survey about recent substance use, sexual behavior, and various psychosocial measures. The four phases were implemented sequentially. During phase one, we placed advertisements on mobile applications, and during phase two, we placed advertisements on traditional websites formatted for browsers. During phase three, we used e-mail to initiate snowball recruitment, and during phase four, we used social media for snowball recruitment. Advertisements on mobile devices and websites formatted for browsers proved to be expensive options and resulted in few eligible participants. Our attempts to initiate a snowball through e-mail also proved unsuccessful. The majority (n=320) of observations in our final dataset came from our use of social media. However, participant fraud was a concern, requiring us to implement a strong participant verification protocol. For maximum recruitment and cost-effectiveness, researchers should use social media for recruitment provided they employ strong participant verification protocols.
Keywords: Amphetamine; Drug Use; HIV; Prevention; Sexual behaviours.
Conflict of interest statement
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Figures
Similar articles
-
Recruitment Strategies of Indian Men Who Have Sex with Men in the State of Maharashtra Into an Online Survey.Int J Sex Health. 2016;28(3):221-227. doi: 10.1080/19317611.2016.1193079. Epub 2016 Jun 17. Int J Sex Health. 2016. PMID: 27668029 Free PMC article.
-
How Best to Obtain Valid, Verifiable Data Online From Male Couples? Lessons Learned From an eHealth HIV Prevention Intervention for HIV-Negative Male Couples.JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2016 Sep 20;2(2):e152. doi: 10.2196/publichealth.6392. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2016. PMID: 27649587 Free PMC article.
-
Reaching Adolescent Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Men Online: Development and Refinement of a National Recruitment Strategy.J Med Internet Res. 2016 Aug 4;18(8):e200. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5602. J Med Internet Res. 2016. PMID: 27492781 Free PMC article.
-
The Use of Social Media in Recruitment for Medical Research Studies: A Scoping Review.J Med Internet Res. 2016 Nov 7;18(11):e286. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5698. J Med Internet Res. 2016. PMID: 27821383 Free PMC article. Review.
-
The Use of Facebook in Recruiting Participants for Health Research Purposes: A Systematic Review.J Med Internet Res. 2017 Aug 28;19(8):e290. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7071. J Med Internet Res. 2017. PMID: 28851679 Free PMC article. Review.
Cited by
-
Social Media Use for Research Participant Recruitment: Integrative Literature Review.J Med Internet Res. 2022 Aug 4;24(8):e38015. doi: 10.2196/38015. J Med Internet Res. 2022. PMID: 35925655 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Social media recruitment for mental health research: A systematic review.Compr Psychiatry. 2020 Nov;103:152197. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2020.152197. Epub 2020 Aug 12. Compr Psychiatry. 2020. PMID: 32992073 Free PMC article.
-
Drink goal difficulty effect on outcomes in moderation-based alcohol treatment for sexual minority men.J Subst Abuse Treat. 2020 May;112:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jsat.2020.01.001. Epub 2020 Jan 9. J Subst Abuse Treat. 2020. PMID: 32076362 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial.
-
Web-Based Eligibility Quizzes to Verify Opioid Use and County Residence Among Rural Young Adults: Eligibility Screening Results from a Feasibility Study.JMIR Res Protoc. 2019 Jun 18;8(6):e12984. doi: 10.2196/12984. JMIR Res Protoc. 2019. PMID: 31215520 Free PMC article.
-
Fraud Detection Protocol for Web-Based Research Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: Development and Descriptive Evaluation.JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2019 Feb 4;5(1):e12344. doi: 10.2196/12344. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2019. PMID: 30714944 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Bull SS, Vallejos D, Levine D, Ortiz C. Improving recruitment and retention for an online randomized controlled trial: Experience from the Youthnet study. AIDS Care. 2008;20(8):887–893. - PubMed
-
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV/AIDS surveillance report, 2010. 2012;22 Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/reports/
-
- Cooke M, Watkins N, Moy C. A hybrid online and offline approach to market measurement studies. International Journal of Market Research. 2009;51(1):29–48.
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Other Literature Sources