title: Facebook: an effective tool for participant retention in longitudinal research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Facebook is currently one of the world's most visited websites, and home to millions of users who access their accounts on a regular basis. Owing to the website's ease of accessibility and free service, demographic characteristics of users span all domains. As such, Facebook may be a valuable tool for locating and communicating with participants in longitudinal research studies. This article outlines the benefit gained in a longitudinal follow-up study, of an intervention programme for at-risk families, through the use of Facebook as a search engine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using Facebook as a resource, we were able to locate 19 participants that were otherwise 'lost' to follow-up, decreasing attrition in our study by 16%. Additionally, analysis indicated that hard-to-reach participants located with Facebook differed significantly on measures of receptive language and self-esteem when compared to their easier-to-locate counterparts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that Facebook is an effective means of improving participant retention in a longitudinal intervention study and may help improve study validity by reaching participants that contribute differing results.
authors: Faculty of Nursing, University of Calgary, AB, Canada. rmmychas@ucalgary.ca
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Mychasiuk
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Benzies
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies / Q000379:methods*; D059012:Lost to Follow-Up; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D057386:Search Engine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*