P6.5 EFFECTIVENESS OF FACEBOOK FOR PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT INTO A BLOOD PRESSURE RANDOMISED CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL

DOI

10.1016/j.artres.2015.10.289How to use a DOI?

Abstract

Background: The cost of conventional advertising to recruit participants for clinical trials is expensive and can be ineffective. Social media may be a useful tool to improve participant recruitment. This study evaluated the use of Facebook advertising to recruit participants into a clinical trial.

Methods: Conventional advertisements (newspaper, radio, posters in doctors clinics) were employed for the first 20 months of a clinical trial conducted in the Australian capital cities of Hobart, Brisbane and Canberra. With dwindling participant recruitment, a Facebook advertising campaign, targeting 18 to 69 year olds currently taking blood pressure medication was employed in each city. Campaigns were broadcast intermittently over a four month period, with recruitment results compared to those using conventional methods in the previous 20 months.

Results: Facebook advertisement resulted in a significant increase in the number of participants recruited per month among the Canberra and Hobart sites (from 4.1/month to 7.0/month; p<0.05). However, participant recruitment remained unchanged (and low) at the Brisbane site (2.4/month to 2.6/month; p=0.89). Despite a greater population reach in Brisbane (n=91,828) compared with Canberra (n=71,343) and Hobart (n=52,647), the number of clicks onto the advertisement in Brisbane was equal to other sites (n=2757, n=2521, n=2991 respectively). Several attempts were made to improve the Facebook advertising strategy in Brisbane, but with no effect.

Conclusion: Facebook advertisement can be a successful tool to increase participant recruitment into a blood pressure clinical trial, but effectiveness appears to be location-dependent.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Erin Nash*
AU  - James Sharman
PY  - 2015
DA  - 2015/11/23
TI  - P6.5 EFFECTIVENESS OF FACEBOOK FOR PARTICIPANT RECRUITMENT INTO A BLOOD PRESSURE RANDOMISED CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 26
EP  - 26
VL  - 12
IS  - C
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2015.10.289
DO  - 10.1016/j.artres.2015.10.289
ID  - Nash*2015
ER  -