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Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use

BACKGROUND: Studies of tobacco use and other health behaviors have reported great challenges in recruiting young adults. Social media is widely used by young adults in the United States and represents a potentially fast, affordable method of recruiting study participants for survey research. OBJECTI...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ramo, Danielle E, Prochaska, Judith J
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Gunther Eysenbach 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3374532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22360969
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1878
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author Ramo, Danielle E
Prochaska, Judith J
author_facet Ramo, Danielle E
Prochaska, Judith J
author_sort Ramo, Danielle E
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Studies of tobacco use and other health behaviors have reported great challenges in recruiting young adults. Social media is widely used by young adults in the United States and represents a potentially fast, affordable method of recruiting study participants for survey research. OBJECTIVE: The present study examined Facebook as a mechanism to reach and survey young adults about tobacco and other substance use. METHODS: Participants were cigarette users, age 18-25 years old, living throughout the United States and recruited through Facebook to complete a survey about tobacco and other substance use. Paid advertising using Facebook’s Ad program over 13 months from 2010 Feb 28 to 2011 Apr 4 targeted by age (18-25), location (United States or California), language (English), and tobacco- and/or marijuana-related keywords. Facebook approved all ads. RESULTS: The campaign used 20 ads, which generated 28,683,151 impressions, yielding 14,808 clicks (0.7% of targeted Facebook members), at an overall cost of $6,628.24. The average cost per click on an ad was $0.45. The success of individual ads varied widely. There was a rise in both clicks and impressions as the campaign grew. However, the peak for clicks was 3 months before the peak for ad impressions. Of the 69,937,080 accounts for those age 18-25 in the United States, Facebook estimated that 2.8% (n = 1,980,240) were reached through tobacco and marijuana keywords. Our campaign yielded 5237 signed consents (35.4% of clicks), of which 3093 (59%) met criteria, and 1548 (50% of those who met criteria) completed the survey. The final cost per valid completed survey was $4.28. The majority of completed surveys came from whites (69%) and males (72%). The sample averaged 8.9 cigarettes per day (SD 7.5), 3.8 years of smoking (SD 2.9), with a median of 1 lifetime quit attempts; 48% did not intend to quit smoking in the next 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Despite wide variety in the success of individual ads and potential concerns about sample representativeness, Facebook was a useful, cost-effective recruitment source for young-adult smokers to complete a survey about the use of tobacco and other substances. The current findings support Facebook as a viable recruitment option for assessment of health behavior in young adults.
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spelling pubmed-33745322012-06-13 Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use Ramo, Danielle E Prochaska, Judith J J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Studies of tobacco use and other health behaviors have reported great challenges in recruiting young adults. Social media is widely used by young adults in the United States and represents a potentially fast, affordable method of recruiting study participants for survey research. OBJECTIVE: The present study examined Facebook as a mechanism to reach and survey young adults about tobacco and other substance use. METHODS: Participants were cigarette users, age 18-25 years old, living throughout the United States and recruited through Facebook to complete a survey about tobacco and other substance use. Paid advertising using Facebook’s Ad program over 13 months from 2010 Feb 28 to 2011 Apr 4 targeted by age (18-25), location (United States or California), language (English), and tobacco- and/or marijuana-related keywords. Facebook approved all ads. RESULTS: The campaign used 20 ads, which generated 28,683,151 impressions, yielding 14,808 clicks (0.7% of targeted Facebook members), at an overall cost of $6,628.24. The average cost per click on an ad was $0.45. The success of individual ads varied widely. There was a rise in both clicks and impressions as the campaign grew. However, the peak for clicks was 3 months before the peak for ad impressions. Of the 69,937,080 accounts for those age 18-25 in the United States, Facebook estimated that 2.8% (n = 1,980,240) were reached through tobacco and marijuana keywords. Our campaign yielded 5237 signed consents (35.4% of clicks), of which 3093 (59%) met criteria, and 1548 (50% of those who met criteria) completed the survey. The final cost per valid completed survey was $4.28. The majority of completed surveys came from whites (69%) and males (72%). The sample averaged 8.9 cigarettes per day (SD 7.5), 3.8 years of smoking (SD 2.9), with a median of 1 lifetime quit attempts; 48% did not intend to quit smoking in the next 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Despite wide variety in the success of individual ads and potential concerns about sample representativeness, Facebook was a useful, cost-effective recruitment source for young-adult smokers to complete a survey about the use of tobacco and other substances. The current findings support Facebook as a viable recruitment option for assessment of health behavior in young adults. Gunther Eysenbach 2012-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3374532/ /pubmed/22360969 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1878 Text en ©Danielle E. Ramo, Judith J. Prochaska. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 23.02.2012. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Ramo, Danielle E
Prochaska, Judith J
Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use
title Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use
title_full Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use
title_fullStr Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use
title_full_unstemmed Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use
title_short Broad Reach and Targeted Recruitment Using Facebook for an Online Survey of Young Adult Substance Use
title_sort broad reach and targeted recruitment using facebook for an online survey of young adult substance use
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3374532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22360969
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1878
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