TY - JOUR
T1 - Recruiting cancer survivors into research studies using online methods
T2 - A secondary analysis from an international cancer survivorship cohort study
AU - Hulbert-Williams, Nicholas J.
AU - Pendrous, Rosina
AU - Hulbert-Williams, Lee
AU - Swash, Brooke
N1 - Funding Information:
Ethical approval for this study was provided by the University of Chester, UK (Ref: 2001316) and the University of Sydney, Australia (Ref: 2016/752).
Funding Information:
This project was funded by a research grant from the University of Chester, and supported by a charitable donation from Cancer: A Need for Change.
Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge our broader study team including Pandora Patterson, Fiona McDonald, Melissa Pilkington, Lesley Storey, David Gillanders and Sylvie Lambert. We are grateful to the following organisations for supporting dissemination of our research advertisement through the recruitment period: Against Breast Cancer, The Anthony Nolan Trust, The Australian Liver Foundation, Ballboys, Balls to Cancer, Beating Bowel Cancer, Bloodwise, Bone Cancer Research Trust, Bowel Cancer UK, Cancer Active, Cancer52, CanTeen, Cavendish Cancer Care, CLIC Sargent, Ellesmere Port Prostate Cancer Support, Cupcakes, Hoole Community Centre, Independent Cancer Patient Voices, Involving People, Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, Living Beyond Diagnosis, Macmillan Cancer Support, Maggie's, Mouth Cancer Foundation, Myeloma Australia, Ovarian Cancer Australia, NCRI Consumer Forum, Penny Brohn, Pink Ribbon Foundation, The Brain Foundation, Brain Tumour Action, Brainstrust, Breast Cancer Action Nova Scotia, Rethink Breast Cancer, Teenage Cancer Trust, The Haven, The Youth Cancer Trust, Womb Cancer Support UK and The Women's Cancer Foundation.
Funding Information:
We would like to acknowledge our broader study team including Pandora Patterson, Fiona McDonald, Melissa Pilkington, Lesley Storey, David Gillanders and Sylvie Lambert. We are grateful to the following organisations for supporting dissemination of our research advertisement through the recruitment period: Against Breast Cancer, The Anthony Nolan Trust, The Australian Liver Foundation, Ballboys, Balls to Cancer, Beating Bowel Cancer, Bloodwise, Bone Cancer Research Trust, Bowel Cancer UK, Cancer Active, Cancer52, CanTeen, Cavendish Cancer Care, CLIC Sargent, Ellesmere Port Prostate Cancer Support, Cupcakes, Hoole Community Centre, Independent Cancer Patient Voices, Involving People, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, Living Beyond Diagnosis, Macmillan Cancer Support, Maggie’s, Mouth Cancer Foundation, Myeloma Australia, Ovarian Cancer Australia, NCRI Consumer Forum, Penny Brohn, Pink Ribbon Foundation, The Brain Foundation, Brain Tumour Action, Brainstrust, Breast Cancer Action Nova Scotia, Rethink Breast Cancer, Teenage Cancer Trust, The Haven, The Youth Cancer Trust, Womb Cancer Support UK and The Women’s Cancer Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © the authors;
PY - 2019/12/12
Y1 - 2019/12/12
N2 - Recruiting participants into cancer survivorship research remains a significant challenge. Few studies have tested and compared the relative use of non-clinical online recruitment methods, especially in samples of adult cancer survivors. This paper reports on the feasibility of recruiting a representative cohort of cancer survivors using online social media. Two hundred participants with cancer diagnosis within the past 12 months were recruited via social media (Facebook, Twitter and Reddit) into a longitudinal questionnaire study. Different methods of online recruitment proved to be more effective than others over time. Paid Facebook boosting, Reddit posts and Twitter advertisements placed by existing cancer charities proved most helpful in reaching our recruitment target (contributing 27%, 22% and 32%, respectively). Recruiting online achieved a more demographically and clinically representative sample for our study: our subject was younger, less heteronormative, including those with a range of clinical diagnoses, primary and recurrence illness, and patients who had both completed and were still receiving treatment. This was certainly not a quick method of sample recruitment but that could have been optimised by focussing only on the three most effective methods described earlier. While we found that online recruitment is significantly lower in cost than traditional recruitment methods, and can reduce some biases, there still remains the potential for some biases (e.g. excluding much older participants) and ethical/methodological issues (e.g. excluding those without access to Internet). We outline our recruitment strategy, retention rates and a cost breakdown in order to guide other researchers considering such methods for future research in cancer survivorship.
AB - Recruiting participants into cancer survivorship research remains a significant challenge. Few studies have tested and compared the relative use of non-clinical online recruitment methods, especially in samples of adult cancer survivors. This paper reports on the feasibility of recruiting a representative cohort of cancer survivors using online social media. Two hundred participants with cancer diagnosis within the past 12 months were recruited via social media (Facebook, Twitter and Reddit) into a longitudinal questionnaire study. Different methods of online recruitment proved to be more effective than others over time. Paid Facebook boosting, Reddit posts and Twitter advertisements placed by existing cancer charities proved most helpful in reaching our recruitment target (contributing 27%, 22% and 32%, respectively). Recruiting online achieved a more demographically and clinically representative sample for our study: our subject was younger, less heteronormative, including those with a range of clinical diagnoses, primary and recurrence illness, and patients who had both completed and were still receiving treatment. This was certainly not a quick method of sample recruitment but that could have been optimised by focussing only on the three most effective methods described earlier. While we found that online recruitment is significantly lower in cost than traditional recruitment methods, and can reduce some biases, there still remains the potential for some biases (e.g. excluding much older participants) and ethical/methodological issues (e.g. excluding those without access to Internet). We outline our recruitment strategy, retention rates and a cost breakdown in order to guide other researchers considering such methods for future research in cancer survivorship.
KW - Methodology
KW - Online
KW - Psychosocial
KW - Recruitment
KW - Survivorship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084111116&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85084111116&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3332/ECANCER.2019.990
DO - 10.3332/ECANCER.2019.990
M3 - Article (journal)
AN - SCOPUS:85084111116
SN - 1754-6605
VL - 13
JO - ecancermedicalscience
JF - ecancermedicalscience
M1 - 990
ER -