JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Researchers are increasingly looking to social media for recruitment due to its many advantages over traditional methods. While prior health research studies have used social media recruitment, there is little evidence regarding its feasibility in recruiting a representative sample into suicide prevention research, a highly stigmatised and sensitive topic.

Objective:

This study aimed to examine the feasibility of using Facebook to recruit a sample from the general community into a suicide prevention survey, specifically (1) the cost-effectiveness of Facebook advertising; (2) the representativeness of sample recruited; and (3) the impact of gender-specific advertising content on the rate of male or female participation in surveys.

Methods:

From June 2017 to March 2019, Facebook advertisements were targeted to adults 18 years or above, residing in LifeSpan New South Wales (NSW) trial or control regions. Cost-effectiveness of Facebook advertisements was examined descriptively using metrics provided by Facebook. Chi-square analyses were conducted to determine demographic differences between our sample and the general NSW population, as well as the impact of gender-specific advertisements on gender engagement.

Results:

The 14 Facebook advertisement campaigns reached a total of 675,199 people, yielded 25,993 link clicks and recruited 7,302 participants, at an overall low cost per participant (AU$2.87). Our sample demonstrated overrepresentation of younger (p <0.001), female (p <0.001), higher educated (p <0.001), English speaking participants (p <0.001), and those with mental health disorders (p <0.001) compared to the target NSW population and nation-wide census data. A significantly greater proportion of males (37.7%) were recruited through gender-specific advertisements, compared to males (24.6%) recruited through gender-neutral advertisements (p=0.038, OR 1.858, 95% CI (1.678 – 2.058)).

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates the potential of Facebook to be an effective low-cost strategy in recruiting a large sample of the general community for suicide prevention research. Our finding that gender-specific advertisements increased male participation suggests that this approach could be applied to other demographic subgroups to ensure sample representativeness and generalisability of findings.