Using Facebook in Recruiting Kidney Transplant Recipients for a REDCap Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Research
• Social Media in Health
• Transplantation Science

Background:

• Kidney transplant recipients require ongoing monitoring and research.
• Online platforms offer novel recruitment avenues for clinical studies.
• Social media, particularly Facebook, has a large user base that may include patient communities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of Facebook recruitment for kidney transplant recipients.
• To compare different Facebook recruitment strategies for clinical research.
• To assess the feasibility of web-based surveys in this population.

Main Methods:

• A web-based study utilized Facebook for recruitment over five weeks.
• Participants completed 125 survey items using Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap).
• Three recruitment methods were employed: standard ads, targeted support groups, and a promoted study page.

Main Results:

• 153 eligible kidney transplant recipients completed the survey.
• Standard Facebook ads were the most effective recruitment method (51% of participants).
• The average cost per completed survey was $2.19 via standard ads, proving economically feasible.

Conclusions:

• Facebook is a viable and cost-effective platform for recruiting kidney transplant recipients for online research.
• Standard Facebook advertising is more efficient than targeted groups or promoted pages for this population.
• Online surveys are feasible for this demographic, though potential issues like response time and participant misrepresentation require attention.