Division of General Internal Medicine & Health Services Research, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, 1100 Glendon Ave, Ste 850, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA.
Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Trials. 2021 Aug 2;22(1):513. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05467-3.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated adoption of scarce resource allocation (SRA) policies, we sought to rapidly deploy a novel survey to ascertain community values and preferences for SRA and to test the utility of a brief intervention to improve knowledge of and values alignment with a new SRA policy. Given social distancing and precipitous evolution of the pandemic, Internet-enabled recruitment was deemed the best method to engage a community-based sample. We quantify the efficiency and acceptability of this Internet-based recruitment for engaging a trial cohort and describe the approach used for implementing a health-related trial entirely online using off-the-shelf tools.
We recruited 1971 adult participants (≥ 18 years) via engagement with community partners and organizations and outreach through direct and social media messaging. We quantified response rate and participant characteristics of our sample, examine sample representativeness, and evaluate potential non-response bias.
Recruitment was similarly derived from direct referral from partner organizations and broader social media based outreach, with extremely low study entry from organic (non-invited) search activity. Of social media platforms, Facebook was the highest yield recruitment source. Bot activity was present but minimal and identifiable through meta-data and engagement behavior. Recruited participants differed from broader populations in terms of sex, ethnicity, and education, but had similar prevalence of chronic conditions. Retention was satisfactory, with entrance into the first follow-up survey for 61% of those invited.
We demonstrate that rapid recruitment into a longitudinal intervention trial via social media is feasible, efficient, and acceptable. Recruitment in conjunction with community partners representing target populations, and with outreach across multiple platforms, is recommended to optimize sample size and diversity. Trial implementation, engagement tracking, and retention are feasible with off-the-shelf tools using preexisting platforms.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04373135 . Registered on May 4, 2020.
为应对 COVID-19 大流行及相关稀缺资源分配 (SRA) 政策的采用，我们试图快速部署一项新的调查，以了解社区对 SRA 的价值观和偏好，并测试一项简短干预措施的效用，以提高对新 SRA 政策的认识和价值认同。鉴于社交距离和大流行的迅速演变，认为基于互联网的招募是吸引基于社区的样本的最佳方法。我们量化了这种基于互联网的招募方式在招募试验队列方面的效率和可接受性，并描述了使用现成工具完全在线实施与健康相关的试验的方法。
我们通过与社区合作伙伴和组织的接触以及通过直接和社交媒体消息传递进行外展，招募了 1971 名成年参与者（≥18 岁）。我们量化了我们样本的响应率和参与者特征，检查了样本的代表性，并评估了潜在的无响应偏差。
招募同样来自合作伙伴组织的直接推荐和更广泛的社交媒体外展，只有极低的研究参与来自有机（非邀请）搜索活动。在社交媒体平台中，Facebook 是最高效的招募来源。存在机器人活动，但通过元数据和参与行为可以识别。招募的参与者在性别、种族和教育方面与更广泛的人群不同，但慢性疾病的患病率相似。保留率令人满意，邀请的 61%的人进入了第一次随访调查。
我们证明了通过社交媒体快速招募纵向干预试验是可行、高效和可接受的。与代表目标人群的社区合作伙伴合作进行招募，并在多个平台上进行外展，以优化样本量和多样性。使用现成的工具和现有的平台可以实现试验实施、参与跟踪和保留。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04373135。注册于 2020 年 5 月 4 日。
