ArticleEcancermedicalscience2019
Recruiting cancer survivors into research studies using online methods: a secondary analysis from an international cancer survivorship cohort study.
Article in Ecancermedicalscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- In-clinic Versus Online Recruitment of Women With a History of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia or Cervical Cancer to a Smoking Cessation Trial: A Post hoc Comparison of Participant Characteristics, Study Retention, and Cessation Outcomes.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Trial
- Trial
- A Digital Self-management Program (Help to Overcome Problems Effectively) for People Living With Cancer: Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Recruiting Cancer Survivors to a Mobile Mindfulness Intervention in the United States: Exploring Online and Face-to-Face Recruitment Strategies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Article
- Feasibility and acceptability of a parallel, two-arm randomized controlled trial to evaluate an online physical activity behavior counseling intervention for young adults diagnosed with cancer: a mixed-methods pilot study.Pilot and feasibility studies · 2025Article
- Constructing TheKeep.Ca With Thrivers of Cancer in Manitoba, Canada, in Support of Enhancing Patient Engagement: Protocol for a Pragmatic Multimethods Study.JMIR research protocols · 2025Article
- Article
- Unveiling perspectives on the psychosocial impacts of childhood cancer survival on young adult survivors' reassimilation journey: A qualitative exploration.Canadian oncology nursing journal = Revue canadienne de nursing oncologique · 2024Article
- Article
- Strategies for recruitment and retention of adolescent and young adult cancer patients in research studies.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2023Review
- The use of online social media for the recruitment of people living with HIV in Spain and Latin America: Lessons from two studies.Health & social care in the community · 2022Article
- Article
- Utilizing Social Media Advertisements and Participant Social Networks to Recruit African American Breast Cancer Survivors: Design and Rationale.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Cost, reach, and representativeness of recruitment efforts for an online skin cancer risk reduction intervention trial for young adults.Translational behavioral medicine · 2021Article
- Evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on supportive care needs, psychological distress and quality of life in UK cancer survivors and their support network.European journal of cancer care · 2021Article
- Recruiting participants for an international mHealth study via Facebook Ads: Experiences from the Untire App RCT.Internet interventions · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recruiting participants into cancer survivorship research remains a significant challenge. Few studies have tested and compared the relative use of non-clinical online recruitment methods, especially in samples of adult cancer survivors. This paper reports on the feasibility of recruiting a representative cohort of cancer survivors using online social media. Two hundred participants with cancer diagnosis within the past 12 months were recruited via social media (Facebook, Twitter and Reddit) into a longitudinal questionnaire study. Different methods of online recruitment proved to be more effective than others over time. Paid Facebook boosting, Reddit posts and Twitter advertisements placed by existing cancer charities proved most helpful in reaching our recruitment target (contributing 27%, 22% and 32%, respectively). Recruiting online achieved a more demographically and clinically representative sample for our study: our subject was younger, less heteronormative, including those with a range of clinical diagnoses, primary and recurrence illness, and patients who had both completed and were still receiving treatment. This was certainly not a quick method of sample recruitment but that could have been optimised by focussing only on the three most effective methods described earlier. While we found that online recruitment is significantly lower in cost than traditional recruitment methods, and can reduce some biases, there still remains the potential for some biases (e.g. excluding much older participants) and ethical/methodological issues (e.g. excluding those without access to Internet). We outline our recruitment strategy, retention rates and a cost breakdown in order to guide other researchers considering such methods for future research in cancer survivorship.
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