title: Recruiting Diverse Smokers: Enrollment Yields and Cost.
abstract: To help tobacco control research better include vulnerable populations, we sought to identify effective ways to recruit diverse smokers. In 2014-2015, we recruited 2149 adult cigarette smokers in California and North Carolina, United States, to participate in a randomized trial of pictorial cigarette pack warnings. The most effective means of recruiting smokers were the classified advertising website Craigslist (28% of participants), word of mouth (23%), Facebook (16%), and flyers or postcards (14%). Low-income and African American smokers were more likely to respond to interpersonal contact (including staff in-person recruitment and word of mouth) than were high-income and non-African American smokers (allp< 0.05). Hispanic and gay, lesbian, and bisexual smokers were more likely to be recruited by Craigslist than non-Hispanic and straight smokers (bothp< 0.05). Of the recruitment methods requiring cost, the cheapest was Craigslist ($3-7 per smoker). The most expensive methods were newspaper ads in California ($375 per smoker) and staff in-person recruiting in North Carolina ($180 per smoker). Successfully recruiting diverse smokers requires using multiple methods including interpersonal, online, and other media. Craigslist and word of mouth are especially useful and low-cost ways to recruit diverse smokers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rosenau Hall CB7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. kbrodar@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Kaitlyn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Brodar
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rosenau Hall CB7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. mghall@unc.edu.|Lineberger Comprehensive Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. mghall@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Marissa G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. ebonee@live.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Eboneé N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.affiliation: Lineberger Comprehensive Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. hparada@live.unc.edu.|Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. hparada@live.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Humberto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Parada
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Chapel Hill Center, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA. stein@PIRE.org.
authors.forename: Al
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stein-Seroussi
authors.affiliation: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Chapel Hill Center, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA. shanley@PIRE.org.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hanley
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rosenau Hall CB7440, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. ntb@unc.edu.|Lineberger Comprehensive Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA. ntb@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Noel T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Brewer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising / Q000379:methods; D001741:Black or African American; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002140:California; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina; D018579:Patient Selection; D012107:Research Design; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology*; D061108:Social Media; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: African American; GLB; Hispanic; low-income; recruitment; tobacco; transgender