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. 2018 Jan;22(1):347-357.
doi: 10.1007/s10461-017-1956-6.

Mixed-Method Evaluation of Social Media-Based Tools and Traditional Strategies to Recruit High-Risk and Hard-to-Reach Populations into an HIV Prevention Intervention Study

Sarah J Iribarren  1 , Alhasan Ghazzawi  2 , Alan Z Sheinfil  3 , Timothy Frasca  2 , William Brown 3rd  2   4   5   6 , Javier Lopez-Rios  2   7 , Christine T Rael  2 , Iván C Balán  2 , Raynier Crespo  2 , Curtis Dolezal  2 , Rebecca Giguere  2 , Alex Carballo-Diéguez  2
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Mixed-Method Evaluation of Social Media-Based Tools and Traditional Strategies to Recruit High-Risk and Hard-to-Reach Populations into an HIV Prevention Intervention Study

Sarah J Iribarren et al. AIDS Behav. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Men who have sex with men and transgender women are hard-to-reach populations for research. Social media-based tools may overcome certain barriers in accessing these groups and are being tested in an ongoing study exploring HIV home-test kit use to reduce risk behavior. We analyzed pre-screening responses about how volunteers learned about the study (n = 896) and demographic data from eligible participants who came for an initial study visit (n = 216) to determine the strengths and weaknesses of recruitment strategies. Social media-based strategies resulted in the highest number of individuals screened (n = 444, 26% eligible). Dating sites/apps reached large numbers of eligible participants. White-Hispanics and African-Americans were more likely to be recruited through personal contacts; community events successfully reached Hispanic volunteers. Incorporating recruitment queries into pre-screening forms can help modify recruitment strategies for greater efficacy and efficiency. Findings suggest that recruitment strategies need to be tailored to reach specific target populations.

Keywords: Ethnic minorities; HIV prevention; Latino; Men who have sex with men; Recruitment; Social-media based recruitment strategies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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