Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 22, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 22, 2019 - Feb 22, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 15, 2020
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Using Web-Based Social Media to Recruit Heavy-Drinking Young Adults for Sleep Intervention: Prospective Observation
ABSTRACT
Background:
Novel alcohol prevention strategies are needed for heavy-drinking young adults. Sleep problems are common among young adults who drink heavily and a risk factor for developing an alcohol use disorder. Young adults are interested in the connection between sleep and alcohol and are open to getting help for their sleep. Therefore, sleep interventions may offer an innovative solution. This study evaluated social media advertising for reaching young adults and recruiting them for a new alcohol prevention program focused on sleep.
Objective:
(1) Evaluate the effectiveness and cost of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat advertising to reach young adults with heavy drinking for a sleep intervention; (2) characterize sleep, alcohol use, and related concerns and interests among responders; and (3) identify the most appealing advertising content.
Methods:
In Study 1, advertisements targeting young adults with sleep concerns, heavy alcohol use, and/or interest in participating in a sleep program ran over a 3-month period until enrollment goal achieved. Advertisements directed volunteers to complete a brief Web-based survey to determine initial sleep program eligibility and to characterize the concerns and/or interests that attracted them to click the advertisement. In Study 2, 3 ads ran simultaneously for 2 days to compare the effectiveness of specific advertising themes for reaching and enrolling young adults.
Results:
In Study 1, ads generated 13,638 clicks, 909 surveys, and 27 enrolled volunteers in 3 months across all the social media. Fees averaged $0.27 per click, $3.99 per completed survey, $11.43 per volunteer meeting initial screening eligibility, and $106.59 per study enrollee. On average, those who completed the Web-based survey were 21.1 (SD 2.3) yrs of age, and 69.4% (631/909) were female. Most reported sleep concerns (79.8%) and interest in the connection between sleep and alcohol use (60.2%) but few had drinking concerns (5.9%). About a third (34.9%, 317/909) were identified as at risk for developing an alcohol use disorder based on a validated alcohol screener. Among this subsample, 8.5% (27/317) met final criteria and enrolled in the trial. Some volunteers also referred additional volunteers by word-of-mouth. In Study 2, ads targeting sleep yielded a higher response rate than ads targeting alcohol use (0.91% vs 0.56% click rate, P < .001).
Conclusions:
Social media advertisements designed to target young adults with sleep concerns reached those who also drank alcohol heavily, despite few being concerned about their drinking. Moreover, advertisements focused on sleep were more effective than those focused on drinking. Compared to prior studies, our cost-effectiveness was moderate for engagement (impressions to clicks), excellent for conversion (clicks to survey completion), and reasonable for study enrollment. These data demonstrate the utility of social media advertising generally and specifically focused on sleep to reach young adults who drink heavily and recruit for them intervention. Clinical Trial: NCT036589
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.