title: Recruiting Pregnant Patients for Survey Research: A Head to Head Comparison of Social Media-Based Versus Clinic-Based Approaches.
abstract: Recruiting a diverse sample of pregnant women for clinical research is a challenging but crucial task for improving obstetric services and maternal and child health outcomes.
  
  
  
  To compare the feasibility and cost of recruiting pregnant women for survey research using social media-based and clinic-based approaches.
  
  
  
  Advertisements were used to recruit pregnant women from the social media website Facebook. In-person methods were used to recruit pregnant women from the outpatient clinic of a large, tertiary care center. In both approaches, potential respondents were invited to participate in a 15-minute Web-based survey. Each recruitment method was monitored for 1 month. Using bivariate statistics, we compared the number, demographic characteristics, and health characteristics of women recruited and the cost per completed survey for each recruitment method.
  
  
  
  The social media-based approach recruited 1178 women and the clinic-based approach recruited 219 women. A higher proportion of subjects recruited through social media identified as African American (29.4%, 207/705 vs 11.2%, 20/179), reported household incomes <US $30,000 per year (56.8%, 409/720 vs 25.8%, 47/182), reported being in early pregnancy (18.6%, 135/726 vs 10.4%, 19/183 first trimester), and rated their health as fair or poor (22.2%, 160/722 vs 8.2%, 15/183; all P<.001). A smaller proportion of subjects recruited through social media had earned a college degree (21.3%, 153/717 vs 62.3%, 114/183) and were married or in a domestic partnership (45.7%, 330/722 vs 72.1%, 132/183; all P<.001). Social media-based recruitment costs were US $14.63 per completed survey, compared with US $23.51 for clinic-based recruitment.
  
  
  
  Web-based recruitment through a social networking platform is a feasible, inexpensive, and rapid means of recruiting a large, diverse sample of pregnant women for survey research.
authors.affiliation: National Clinician Scholars Program, University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.|Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2059-9711
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Admon
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.|Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
authors.forename: Jessica K
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8259-8648
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Haefner
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
authors.forename: Giselle E
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8705-9571
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Kolenic
authors.affiliation: Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.|Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3580-9438
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States.
authors.forename: Matthew M
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6370-641X
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.|Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
authors.forename: Michelle H
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8414-4268
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Moniz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018579:Patient Selection; D011247:Pregnancy; D061108:Social Media; D060756:Social Networking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: methods; pregnant women; social media; surveys and questionnaires