Pourabbasi Ata, Farzami Jalal, Shirvani Mahbubeh-Sadat Ebrahimnegad, Shams Amir Hossein, Larijani Bagher
Diabetes Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.
Int J Prev Med. 2017 May 4;8:30. doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_329_16. eCollection 2017.
One of the main usages of social networks in clinical studies is facilitating the process of sampling and case finding for scientists. The main focus of this study is on comparing two different methods of sampling through phone calls and using social network, for study purposes.
One of the researchers started calling 214 families of children with diabetes during 90 days. After this period, phone calls stopped, and the team started communicating with families through telegram, a virtual social network for 30 days. The number of children who participated in the study was evaluated.
Although the telegram method was 60 days shorter than the phone call method, researchers found that the number of participants from telegram (17.6%) did not have any significant differences compared with the ones being phone called (12.9%).
Using social networks can be suggested as a beneficial method for local researchers who look for easier sampling methods, winning their samples' trust, following up with the procedure, and an easy-access database.
社交网络在临床研究中的主要用途之一是为科学家简化抽样和病例查找过程。本研究的主要重点是比较两种不同的抽样方法，即通过电话抽样和利用社交网络抽样，以用于研究目的。
一名研究人员在90天内开始给214个患有糖尿病儿童的家庭打电话。在此期间过后，电话联系停止，研究团队开始通过Telegram（一个虚拟社交网络）与这些家庭沟通30天。对参与研究的儿童数量进行了评估。
尽管通过Telegram的方法比电话方法短60天，但研究人员发现，通过Telegram参与研究的人数（17.6%）与通过电话参与研究的人数（12.9%）相比没有任何显著差异。
对于寻求更简便抽样方法、赢得样本信任、跟进研究过程以及建立易于访问的数据库的当地研究人员而言，使用社交网络可被视为一种有益的方法。
