Cruising in cyber space: comparing Internet chat room versus community venues for recruiting Hispanic men who have sex with men to participate in prevention studies.
Difficulties with recruitment of hidden populations, such as Hispanic men who have sex with men (MSM), have hampered HIV prevention research, leading researchers to explore alternative recruitment modalities such as the Internet. In this paper, we compare the efficiency and cost of recruiting HMSM from Internet chat rooms versus community venues and examine the differences between participants recruited from each type of venue. Internet recruitment was more efficient and somewhat less costly than community recruitment. Although the two groups were comparable in most demographic factors and HIV risk behaviors, Internet recruits were more likely to be bisexual, more likely to be HIV seropositive, had a higher level of education, and reported higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of gay community attachment. Implications of our findings for using Internet chatrooms as recruitment venues are discussed.
Fernández
M Isabel
MI
Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, College of Osteopathic Medicine, 3200 South University Drive, 4th Fl Terry Bldg, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA. mariafer@nsu.nova.edu
Warren
Jacob C
JC
Varga
Leah M
LM
Prado
Guillermo
G
Hernandez
Nilda
N
Bowen
G Stephen
GS
D000328:Adult; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004522:Educational Status; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection; D012309:Risk-Taking; D047568:Unsafe Sex / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control