Social Media Use for Research Participant Recruitment: Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

Background Social media tools have provided health researchers with the opportunity to engage with communities and groups in a nonconventional manner to recruit participants for health research. Using social media to advertise research opportunities and recruit participants facilitates accessibility to participants from broad geographical areas and diverse populations. However, little guidance is provided by ethics review boards for researchers to effectively use this recruitment method in their research. Objective This study sought to explore the literature on the use of social media for participant recruitment for research studies and identify the best practices for recruiting participants using this method. Methods An integrative review approach was used to synthesize the literature. A total of 5 health sciences databases, namely, EMBASE (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid and EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (Ovid), Scopus (Elsevier), and CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCOhost), were searched using predefined keywords and inclusion and exclusion criteria. The initial search was conducted in October 2020 and was updated in February 2022. Descriptive and content analyses were applied to synthesize the results, and the findings are presented in a narrative and tabular format. Results A total of 96 records were included in this review, 83 (86%) from the initial search and 13 (14%) from the updated search. The publication year ranged between 2011 and 2022, with most publications (63/96, 66%) being from the United States. Regarding recruitment strategy, 45% (43/96) of the studies exclusively used social media, whereas 51% (49/96) used social media in conjunction with other strategies. The remaining 4% (4/96) provided guidelines and recommendations for social media recruitment. Notably, 38% (36/96) of these studies involved hard-to-reach populations. The findings also revealed that the use of social media is a cost-effective and efficient strategy for recruiting research participants. Despite the expanded use across different populations, there is limited participation of older adults in social media recruitment. Conclusions This review provides important insights into the current use of social media for health research participant recruitment. Ethics boards and research support services in academic institutions are encouraged to explicitly provide researchers with guidelines on the use of social media for health research participant recruitment. A preliminary guideline prepared based on the findings of this review is proposed to spark further development in this area.

Considerations on the Obstacles That Lead to Slow Recruitment in a Pain Management Clinical Trial: Experiences from the Belgian PELICAN (PrEgabalin Lidocaine Capsaicin Neuropathic Pain) Pragmatic Study

“…However, the authors rightly noted that managing ethical and regulatory aspects will be necessary to take full advantage of this novel opportunity [62]. Darko et al published in their recent review a frst guideline to be used by ethical boards and research support services within academic institutions to provide guidance for researchers to efectively use this recruitment method [63].…”

Factors associated with research participation in a large primary care practice-based pediatric cohort: Results from the TARGet Kids! longitudinal cohort study

“…The use of social media as a tool to promote research participation is increasing and has shown effectiveness in a number of observational studies and clinical trials, including those with hard-to-reach population [ 33 , 34 ]. Effective use of social media has also been a focus of our retention strategies.…”

“…The PACT participated in all stages of this study including setting priorities, determining research questions, and interpreting and communicating findings. The use of social media as a tool to promote research participation is increasing and has shown effectiveness in a number of observational studies and clinical trials, including those with hard-to-reach population [33,34]. Effective use of social media has also been a focus of our retention strategies.…”

Lifestyle factors in Black female breast cancer survivors—Descriptive results from an online pilot study

“…This finding could be attributed to a healthy survivor bias. Furthermore, social media recruitment has had limited participation of older adults ( 48 ). With comparison of our previous study of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients in Maryland utilizing Maryland Cancer Registry data, the mean age at diagnosis was 58.2 years among Black women diagnosed between 2007 and 2017 ( 25 ), while the mean age at diagnosis for the current pilot study was 49.1 years.…”