Harris Melissa L, Loxton Deborah, Wigginton Britta, Lucke Jayne C
Am J Epidemiol. 2015 May 15;181(10):737-46. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwv006. Epub 2015 Apr 15.
Recruitment of young people for epidemiologic research remains challenging, with marked decreases in the effectiveness of face-to-face, mail, and telephone recruitment methods. We report on the implementation and feasibility of an innovative and flexible approach used to recruit participants for a longitudinal cohort study about contraceptive use and pregnancy (the Contraceptive Use, Pregnancy Intention, and Decisions (CUPID) Study). Australian women aged 18-23 years were recruited using a range of online, networking, and offline methods, including social media (primarily Facebook (Facebook Inc., Menlo Park, California; http://www.facebook.com)), face-to-face events, distribution of promotional material, and media releases. Over the course of the 1-year recruitment period (beginning in September 2012), a total of 3,795 eligible women were recruited to complete the online survey, at a cost of approximately A$11 per participant. This sample was found to be broadly representative of the Australian population of women aged 18-23 years in terms of demographic characteristics, with the exception of an overrepresentation of tertiary-educated women (88.7% compared with 72.6%). This study demonstrated that although current recruitment strategies are required to be innovative and flexible in order to engage young people in epidemiologic research, representative samples can be achieved online at reasonable cost.
招募年轻人参与流行病学研究仍然具有挑战性，面对面、邮寄和电话招募方法的有效性显著下降。我们报告了一种创新且灵活的方法在一项关于避孕使用和怀孕的纵向队列研究（避孕使用、怀孕意愿和决策（CUPID）研究）中招募参与者的实施情况和可行性。我们使用一系列在线、社交网络和线下方法招募了年龄在18 - 23岁的澳大利亚女性，包括社交媒体（主要是脸书（脸书公司，加利福尼亚州门洛帕克；http://www.facebook.com））、面对面活动、宣传材料分发和媒体发布。在为期1年的招募期（从2012年9月开始）内，共招募了3795名符合条件的女性来完成在线调查，每位参与者的成本约为11澳元。就人口统计学特征而言，该样本被发现大致代表了18 - 23岁的澳大利亚女性人口，但受过高等教育的女性比例过高（88.7%，而总体为72.6%）。这项研究表明，尽管当前的招募策略需要创新和灵活，以便让年轻人参与流行病学研究，但通过合理成本可以在网上获得具有代表性的样本。
