Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 11, 2025
A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG
Published on: May 3, 2017
"Infantgram?" recruitment of infants to a clinical sleep study via social media
Cathal O'Connor1,2,3, Hannah O'Leary3, Deirdre Murray1,3
1Paediatrics and Child Health, Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland.
Insights
Social media recruitment for infant sleep studies proved feasible and effective during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents reported high satisfaction, citing benefits like health checks and scientific contribution.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Research
- Atopic Dermatitis Studies
- Public Health & Epidemiology
Background:
- Infant sleep disturbances are common and can be exacerbated by conditions like atopic dermatitis.
- Recruitment for longitudinal studies is challenging, particularly during public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the strategy and outcomes of social media recruitment for an infant sleep study.
- To assess the feasibility of using social media platforms for participant recruitment.
- To explore parental satisfaction and perceptions regarding social media-based recruitment.
Main Methods:
- The SPINDLE study recruited infants with and without atopic dermatitis.
- Participants were recruited via social media platforms, primarily Instagram and Facebook.
- Parents of recruited infants were interviewed to gather qualitative feedback on the recruitment process.
Main Results:
- A total of 90 participants (57 controls, 33 cases) were recruited.
- Social media recruitment, particularly via Instagram, was highly successful for controls (95.6%).
- All mothers (100%) recruited via social media expressed satisfaction, motivated by infant health checks, scientific advancement, and post-lockdown activities.
Conclusions:
- Social media is an effective and accepted method for recruiting participants for infant studies.
- Internet-based recruitment optimizes resources and is beneficial during pandemics.
- Parental engagement was high due to perceived benefits for their child and contribution to research.
Study Objectives:
This study aimed to outline the strategy and outcomes of a study team in recruiting participants for an infant sleep study via social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, to assess the feasibility of recruitment via social media, and to quantitatively and qualitatively explore parental satisfaction and perceptions of recruitment via social media.
Methods:
The assessing sleep in infants with early-onset atopic dermatitis by longitudinal evaluation (SPINDLE) study recruited infants with and without atopic dermatitis for a longitudinal study assessing sleep. Infants were recruited via social media and their parents were interviewed to explore their experience of recruitment via social media.
Results:
In total, 57 controls and 33 cases were recruited. Of the 45 controls recruited via social media, 43 (95.6%) were recruited via Instagram and 2 (4.4%) were recruited via Twitter. Of the seven cases recruited via social media, 6 (85.7%) were recruited via Facebook (via sharing of Instagram posts by third parties on Facebook) and 1 (14.3%) was recruited via Instagram. All (100%, n = 28) mothers recruited via social media who completed the full study were satisfied with this approach to recruitment. Specific reasons why mothers reported engaging following exposure to the social media posts included the benefit of additional health checks for their baby, the benefit to scientific advancement, and the opportunity for a stimulating outing following the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Conclusions:
Our experience highlights parents' acceptance of recruitment via social media, the optimization of time and financial resources, and the benefit of using internet-based recruitment during a pandemic.
More Related Videos
11:14A Novel Experimental and Analytical Approach to the Multimodal Neural Decoding of Intent During Social Interaction in Freely-behaving Human Infants
Published on: October 4, 2015
08:08Author Spotlight: Capturing Infant-Caregiver Interactions Through Synchronized Multimodal Data Collection
Published on: May 31, 2024