Observational studyJournal of medical Internet research2020
Evaluating Two Common Strategies for Research Participant Recruitment Into Autism Studies: Observational Study.
Observational study in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- 'It feels like a blessing' - The experience of Hebrew-English bilingualism among autistic children: An interpretative phenomenological analysis.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2025Article
- Employment-Related Assistive Technology Needs in Autistic Adults: A Mixed-Methods Study.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence-Based Platform in Administering Therapies for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: 12-Month Observational Study.JMIR neurotechnology · 2025Article
- Article
- Effectiveness of multimodal participant recruitment in SPARK, a large, online longitudinal research study of autism.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2024Article
- Evidence-based recruitment strategies for clinical research: Study personnel's and research participants' perceptions about successful methods of outreach for a U.S. Autism-Research Cohort.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2024Article
- A Long-Term Evaluation of Facebook for Recruitment and Retention in the ENDIA Type 1 Diabetes Pregnancy-Birth Cohort Study.Journal of diabetes science and technology · 2023Article
- Cost-effectiveness of social media advertising as a recruitment tool: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2023Article
- Social Media Use for Research Participant Recruitment: Integrative Literature Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Review
- Retracted: Diagnostic Classification and Prognostic Prediction Using Common Genetic Variants in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Genotype-Based Deep Learning.JMIR medical informatics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOngoing research is necessary to better understand the causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the developmental outcomes for individuals diagnosed with ASD, and the efficacy of the interventions. However, it is often difficult to recruit sufficient numbers of participants for studies, and despite the prevalence of ASD (currently estimated to affect 1 in 54 children), little research has focused on how to efficiently recruit participants with ASD.
objectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of two different paid advertisements-social media and radio advertising-in recruiting participants for a study enrolling people with ASD and their family members by examining the number of participants enrolled, the cost per participant, and the geographic reach of each type of advertising.
methodsWe examined participant enrollment in a study following nonoverlapping paid advertisements on a popular FM radio station (aired in three cities across two states) and Facebook (six advertisements that ran in five cities across two states). The total paid investment in the radio campaign was $12,030 and that in the Facebook campaign was $2950. Following the advertising campaigns, 1391 participants in the study who were affiliated with the Houston, Texas, site received email invitations to participate in a brief survey about the ways in which they learned about the study (eg, social media, medical provider, website) and which of these were most influential in their decisions to participate; 374 (26.8%) of the participants completed this survey.
resultsSocial media advertising outperformed radio in all three parameters examined by enrolling more participants (338 vs 149), with a lower average cost per participant ($8.73 vs $80.74) and a wider geographic reach, based on a comparison of the number of zip codes within and outside of Texas for questionnaire respondents who rated social media as the most influential method of contact (n=367, χ
conclusionsOur findings suggest that advertising on social media can efficiently reach a large pool of potential participants with ASD, increasing the likelihood of meeting study enrollment goals. Researchers should consider allocating at least some portion of recruitment dollars to social media platforms as a means of quickly and inexpensively reaching out to their target populations, including for studies with in-person procedures.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.