Effectiveness and Costs of Participant Recruitment Strategies to a Web-Based Population Cohort: Observational Study

This study highlights both the challenges and the opportunities in large web-based cohort recruitment. Overall, social media advertising has been the most cost-effective and easily sustained strategy for recruitment over the reported recruitment period. We note that different strategies resulted in successful recruitment over varying timescales (eg, consistent sustained recruitment for social media and large spikes for news media and TV advertising), which may be informative for future studies with different requirements of recruitment periods. Limitations include self-reported methods of recruitment and difficulties in evaluating multilayered recruitment. Overall, these data demonstrate the potential cost requirements and effectiveness of different strategies that could be applied to future research studies.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Published
2025-07-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2196/75116
Primary Topic
Social Media in Health Education
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Effectiveness and Costs of Participant Recruitment Strategies to a Web-Based Population Cohort: Observational Study

Andrew Mark McIntosh, Liz Kirby, Anne Richmond, F. Landon Clark et al.
Journal of Medical Internet Research
Social Media in Health Education
article

Effectiveness and Costs of Participant Recruitment Strategies to a Web-Based Population Cohort: Observational Study

Andrew Mark McIntosh, Liz Kirby, Anne Richmond, F. Landon Clark, Robin Flaig, Archie Campbell, Daniel L. McCartney, Caroline Hayward, Sarah Robertson, Riccardo E. Marioni, Zhuoni Xiao, Hannah Milbourn, Cathie Sudlow, David J. Porteous, Heather C. Whalley, I.deG. Mitchell, Rosie Tatham, Kerim McAteer, Elly Darrah
article en

Abstract

This study highlights both the challenges and the opportunities in large web-based cohort recruitment. Overall, social media advertising has been the most cost-effective and easily sustained strategy for recruitment over the reported recruitment period. We note that different strategies resulted in successful recruitment over varying timescales (eg, consistent sustained recruitment for social media and large spikes for news media and TV advertising), which may be informative for future studies with different requirements of recruitment periods. Limitations include self-reported methods of recruitment and difficulties in evaluating multilayered recruitment. Overall, these data demonstrate the potential cost requirements and effectiveness of different strategies that could be applied to future research studies.

Journal of Medical Internet ResearchVol. 27
Edinburgh Cancer Research (GB), Spirit AeroSystems (United Kingdom) (GB), MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (GB), The Queen's Medical Research Institute (GB), University of Edinburgh (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 75%
Social Media in Health Education
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.