Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 21, 2019
Date Accepted: Mar 20, 2020
Radio vs. Facebook: Evaluating Two Common Strategies for Research-Participant Recruitment into Autism Studies
ABSTRACT
Background:
Ongoing research is necessary to better understand causes of and developmental outcomes for ASD, as well as the efficacy of interventions. However, studies often face difficulty recruiting a sufficient number of participants, and despite the prevalence of ASD, little research has focused on how to efficiently recruit participants with autism.
Objective:
We were interested in determining the efficacy of two different paid advertisements for a study enrolling people with ASD and their family members: social media and radio advertising.
Methods:
Using enrollment numbers and data from a post-enrollment survey, we examined participant enrollment on three parameters: number of participants enrolled, cost per participant, and geographic reach.
Results:
Social media advertising outperformed radio on all three parameters examined by enrolling more participants (338 vs. 149), with a lower cost per participant ($8.73 vs. $80.74), and a wider geographic reach (χ2 (1, N = 367) = 5.85, p = .02).
Conclusions:
Findings suggest that advertising on social media can efficiently reach a large pool of potential participants with ASD, increasing the likelihood of meeting study enrollment goals.
Citation
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Copyright
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