Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 9, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Nov 9, 2023 - Jan 4, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 17, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Strategies for Identifying and Recruiting Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer for Research Outside of Clinical Settings: An Observational Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Research is needed to understand and address barriers to risk management for women at high (≥20% lifetime) risk for breast cancer, but recruiting this population for research studies is challenging.
Objective:
This paper compares a variety of recruitment strategies employed for a cross-sectional, observational study of high-risk women.
Methods:
Participants were recruited from August 2020 – January 2021 using the following mechanisms: targeted Facebook advertisements; Twitter posts; ResearchMatch (a web-based research recruitment database); community partner promotions; paper flyers; and community outreach events. Interested individuals were directed to a secure website with eligibility screening questions. Participants self-reported method of recruitment during the eligibility screener. For each recruitment strategy, we calculated the rate of eligible respondents and completed surveys, costs per eligible participant, and participant demographics.
Results:
We received 1,566 unique responses to the eligibility screener. Participants most often reported recruitment via Facebook advertisements (46%) and ResearchMatch (41%). Community partner promotions resulted in the highest proportion of eligible respondents (52%), while ResearchMatch had the lowest proportion of eligible respondents (11%). Of the paid recruitment strategies, targeted Facebook advertisements were the most cost effective ($8.47 per completed survey response) and paper flyers were the least cost effective ($356.68 per completed survey response). The demographic characteristics of eligible respondents varied by recruitment strategy: Twitter posts and community outreach events resulted in the highest proportion of Hispanic/Latina women (25% and 33%, respectively) and community partner promotions resulted in the highest proportion of non-Hispanic Black women (17%).
Conclusions:
Although recruitment strategies varied in their yield of study participants, results overall support the feasibility of identifying and recruiting women at high risk for breast cancer outside of clinical settings. Researchers must balance the associated costs and participant yield of various recruitment strategies in planning future studies focused on high-risk women.
Citation
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Copyright
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