Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Global Public Health, New York University, 715 Broadway, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
Ophthalmology, Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020 May 13;20(1):116. doi: 10.1186/s12874-020-01011-0.
The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved into one of the most impactful health crises in modern history, compelling researchers to explore innovative ways to efficiently collect public health data in a timely manner. Social media platforms have been explored as a research recruitment tool in other settings; however, their feasibility for collecting representative survey data during infectious disease epidemics remain unexplored.
This study has two aims 1) describe the methodology used to recruit a nationwide sample of adults residing in the United States (U.S.) to participate in a survey on COVID-19 knowledge, beliefs, and practices, and 2) outline the preliminary findings related to recruitment, challenges using social media as a recruitment platform, and strategies used to address these challenges.
An original web-based survey informed by evidence from past literature and validated scales was developed. A Facebook advertisement campaign was used to disseminate the link to an online Qualtrics survey between March 20-30, 2020. Two supplementary male-only and racial minority- targeted advertisements were created on the sixth and tenth day of recruitment, respectively, to address issues of disproportionate female- and White-oriented gender- and ethnic-skewing observed in the advertisement's reach and response trends.
In total, 6602 participant responses were recorded with representation from all U.S. 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The advertisements cumulatively reached 236,017 individuals and resulted in 9609 clicks (4.07% reach). Total cost of the advertisement was $906, resulting in costs of $0.09 per click and $0.18 per full response (completed surveys). Implementation of the male-only advertisement improved the cumulative percentage of male respondents from approximately 20 to 40%.
The social media advertisement campaign was an effective and efficient strategy to collect large scale, nationwide data on COVID-19 within a short time period. Although the proportion of men who completed the survey was lower than those who didn't, interventions to increase male responses and enhance representativeness were successful. These findings can inform future research on the use of social media recruitment for the rapid collection of survey data related to rapidly evolving health crises, such as COVID-19.
COVID-19 大流行已成为现代历史上最具影响力的健康危机之一，迫使研究人员探索创新方法，以便及时有效地收集公共卫生数据。在其他环境中，社交媒体平台已被探索作为研究招募工具；然而，它们在传染病流行期间收集代表性调查数据的可行性仍未得到探索。
本研究有两个目的：1）描述招募居住在美国的成年人群体参与 COVID-19 知识、信念和实践调查的全国性样本的方法；2）概述与招募相关的初步结果、使用社交媒体作为招募平台的挑战，以及解决这些挑战的策略。
根据过去文献和经过验证的量表的证据，开发了一个原始的基于网络的调查。2020 年 3 月 20 日至 30 日期间，使用 Facebook 广告活动在网上发布了一份在线 Qualtrics 调查的链接。在招募的第六天和第十天分别创建了两个补充的男性专用和少数族裔目标广告，以解决广告的覆盖面和响应趋势中观察到的女性和白人占主导地位的性别和种族倾斜问题。
共有 6602 名参与者的回复记录，代表了美国 50 个州、哥伦比亚特区和波多黎各。广告累计覆盖了 236017 人，点击量为 9609 次（4.07%的覆盖率）。广告总成本为 906 美元，每次点击成本为 0.09 美元，每份完整回复（完成的调查）成本为 0.18 美元。实施男性专用广告将累计男性受访者的百分比从大约 20%提高到 40%。
社交媒体广告活动是在短时间内收集 COVID-19 大规模全国性数据的有效和高效策略。尽管完成调查的男性比例低于未完成调查的男性，但增加男性回复率和增强代表性的干预措施是成功的。这些发现可以为未来利用社交媒体招募来快速收集与 COVID-19 等快速演变的健康危机相关的调查数据提供信息。
