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. 2021 Aug:107:106461.
doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2021.106461. Epub 2021 Jun 17.

Engaging smokers in research: Utility of Facebook in facilitating recruitment to a smoking cessation study

Sarah K Cook  1 , Rebecca N Jerome  2 , Julia Dunagan  2 , Nan Kennedy  2 , Terri Edwards  2 , Jennifer A Minnix  3 , Leann Witmer  3 , Jennifer Ferguson  3 , Paul Cinciripini  3 , Consuelo Wilkins  4 , Paul Harris  5
Affiliations

Engaging smokers in research: Utility of Facebook in facilitating recruitment to a smoking cessation study

Sarah K Cook et al. Contemp Clin Trials. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Introduction: Social media, including Facebook outreach, is increasingly being used as a participant recruitment tool, and may be particularly useful in tobacco and smoking cessation studies. The Recruitment Innovation Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center partnered with Project LUNA, a smoking cessation study, to conduct a pilot social media campaign aimed at increasing study recruitment.

Methods: Two posts encouraging study participation were developed and promoted on Facebook to users with an interest in smoking-related topics, with a link to a study-specific webpage. Facebook and website analytics were collected, including impressions, clicks, click-through rates, website traffic, and clicks to the study screening form. Study screening and enrollment data were also collected.

Results: The Facebook campaign ran in June 2019 in the greater Houston area. In total, the Facebook posts logged 1,179,844 impressions, 6490 clicks, and an overall click-through rate of 0.55%. There were no differences in response to the two different promotional posts. Approximately 3812 unique individuals visited an intermediary study page, with 473 expressing interest in the study. Forty-three potential participants contacted the study team, resulting in study enrollment and randomization of 23 participants, with an estimated cost per enrolled participant of $441.

Conclusions: The social media campaign was successful at increasing outreach and interest in the LUNA study. However, the price-per-participant enrolled was higher than in comparable tobacco cessation studies. These results and lessons learned may be beneficial to others considering social media as a recruitment method for their clinical research trial.

Keywords: Clinical trial recruitment; Smoking cessation; Social media.

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Conflict of interest statement

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS:

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Declaration of interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Facebook campaign creative materials, including A) lung cancer detection messaging approach and B) smoking cessation messaging approach
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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