Comparison of recruitment to an RCT via online advertising and face-to-face methods: secondary analysis of SNAP3 trial data

Traditional trial recruitment strategies can prove expensive, time consuming and inefficient. Potential benefits of social media recruitment have included reduced costs and shorter recruitment periods compared to traditional methods. No studies have previously taken place to specifically assess the effectiveness of using social media to recruit pregnant women who smoke for involvement in clinical trials aimed at promoting smoking cessation. In this study, we directly compare the characteristics of participants recruited to the same study via traditional and social media routes. The purpose of the current secondary analysis is to compare the demographics and smoking behaviours of pregnant women who smoke recruited to the SNAP3 study of smoking cessation interventions in pregnancy via social media versus traditional methods.