JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Recruiting young people for health and intervention studies by traditional methods has become increasingly challenging. The widespread access to the internet, may offer new strategies for online recruitment.

Objective:

We conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility of online recruitment, for a randomized controlled trial, assessing the effectiveness of Mindhelper.dk – an online national youth mental health promotion service. The target group was young Danes aged 15-25 in need of mental health promotion.

Methods:

Advertisements for recruitment were set up at Facebook and Instagram. Browser history was collected for a subsample for participants. We compared basic frequencies of participants’ characteristics completing the baseline survey and participants that who did not complete the baseline survey and calculated. Similarly, we compared characteristics of participants completing the follow-up survey and participants who were lost to follow-up.

Results:

Within one month 560 Danes aged 15-25 were recruited. Among the participants, 64% were in the risk zone for depression or stress. The average advertisement price per participant completing the baseline questionnaire was 31 DKK (approximately 4 Euro). The follow-up survey was sent to 545 participants, of whom 318 (58%) completed the survey. Participants who did not complete the follow-up survey did not differ statistically significant from those who did, by either demographic characteristics or mental wellbeing.

Conclusions:

We conclude that it is feasible to recruit young Danes online for a large scale randomized controlled trial, assessing the effectiveness of Mindhelper.dk. Clinical Trial: The study was registered by ClinicalTrials.gov (ID nr: NCT04650906), legally approved by the Region of Southern Denmark (Journal nr.: 20/55262) and ethical approved by The Research Ethics Committee of the University of Southern Denmark (Case nr. 20/68029).