Recruitment through social media ads and videocalls: cost, effectiveness, and lessons from the Experiences of Pregnancy study.
While participant recruitment via social media is increasingly used, its cost-effectiveness remains unclear for pregnancy cohorts, especially across social media platforms and in the context of increasing threats from web robots (ie, bots) and fraudulent participants. Accordingly, we report on the i...
| Publicado en: | American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 195; no. 2; pp. 335 - 346 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press / USA
Feb2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191385306&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191385306 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00029262 1X1 jtl: American Journal of Epidemiology issn: 00029262 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2026 vid: 195 iid: 2 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 191385306 191385306 191385306 10.1093/aje/kwaf061 191385306 ppf: 335 ppct: 11 formats: tig: atl: Recruitment through social media ads and videocalls: cost, effectiveness, and lessons from the Experiences of Pregnancy study. aug: au: Childers-Rockey, Zoe A Flesher, Emily A Stephens, Jacob I Barton, Nicole K Waldron, Megan E Rioux, Charlie affil: Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States sug: subj: Research Subject Recruitment United States Advertising Economics Social Media Economics Fraud Prevention and Control Cost Effectiveness Analysis Pregnancy Trimester, First Videoconferencing Expectant Mothers United States Human Female Adult Middle Age Prospective Studies Pregnancy Cost Benefit Analysis Population Characteristics Data Collection Methods Internet Mental Health In Pregnancy Postnatal Period Time Attitude to Pregnancy Comparative Studies Questionnaires Data Analysis Software Descriptive Statistics Chi Square Test Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Female ab: While participant recruitment via social media is increasingly used, its cost-effectiveness remains unclear for pregnancy cohorts, especially across social media platforms and in the context of increasing threats from web robots (ie, bots) and fraudulent participants. Accordingly, we report on the implementation and results of online recruitment for a longitudinal cohort study about mental health in pregnancy and postpartum (Experiences of Pregnancy, EoP). We describe the following: (1) the cost-effectiveness of Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter/X for recruiting individuals in their first trimester; (2) methods, experiences, and solutions for preventing bots and fraudulent participants; and (3) the representativeness of EoP compared to the US population and pregnancy cohorts recruited in person. Over 2.5 months (beginning June 2023), 574 participants were recruited at an advertising cost of US$6.19 per participant. Social media recruitment was highly time-efficient compared to in-person recruitment, reaching comparable sample sizes in 1/10th of the time. However, a range of safeguards to counter bots and fraudulent participants had to be implemented, resulting in 995 staff hours during recruitment. Experiences of Pregnancy also allowed reaching individuals without access to prenatal care but was not representative of the US population, suggesting stratified sampling would be needed to reach representativeness with online recruitment. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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