Digital Global Recruitment for Women's Health Research: Cross-sectional Study

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Women's Health Research
• Digital Health Recruitment

Background:

• Growing popularity of mobile menstrual tracking apps and social media presents opportunities for global health research participant recruitment.
• Previous studies have not assessed the feasibility of these digital sources for epidemiological research on ovulation and menstruation (OM).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and diversity of recruiting participants for an epidemiological study on OM health using digital recruitment sources.
• Assessed feasibility through click and participation rates, and diversity via geographic location, BMI, smoking status, and demographics.

Main Methods:

• Active recruitment via in-app messages (Clue app) and boosted Facebook posts (DivaCup).
• Passive recruitment included email, blogs, and other social media.
• Quantified recruitment success using click rates (ad views to website visits) and participation rates (survey completions to consent/eligibility screeners).

Main Results:

• In-app messages yielded the highest recruitment (140 participants) with a 18.9% click rate, compared to Facebook's 1.6%.
• Overall participation rate was 44.6%; average age was 21.8 years.
• Achieved geographic diversity (44.2% outside US) and racial/ethnic diversity (70.7% non-Hispanic White); in-app recruitment was most geographically diverse.

Conclusions:

• In-app messages via the Clue app were the most successful digital recruitment method for geographic diversity and participant numbers.
• Digital recruitment is effective for enrolling diverse participants in global health studies.
• Identified technical errors (programming, bot hacking) to inform future digital recruitment strategies.