Using social media to recruit study participants for a randomized trial for hypertension

Lida Feyz; Yale Wang; Atul Pathak; Manish Saxena; Felix Mahfoud; Kintur Sanghvi; Rose Peterson; Ajay J Kirtane; Michel Azizi; Mano Iyer; Joost Daemen

doi:10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa010

Using social media to recruit study participants for a randomized trial for hypertension

Eur Heart J Digit Health. 2020 Nov 30;1(1):71-74. doi: 10.1093/ehjdh/ztaa010. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Authors

Lida Feyz¹, Yale Wang², Atul Pathak³, Manish Saxena⁴, Felix Mahfoud^{5

6}, Kintur Sanghvi⁷, Rose Peterson², Ajay J Kirtane⁸, Michel Azizi^{9

10

11}, Mano Iyer¹², Joost Daemen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Room Rg-632, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
² Department of Cardiology, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, 800 E 28th St, Minneapolis, MN 55407, USA.
³ Department of Cardiology, Clinique Pasteur, Hypertension, Risk Factors and Heart Failure Unit, ESH Excellence Center, INSERM 1048, 45 Avenue de Lombez - BP 27617, Toulouse 31076, France.
⁴ Department of Cardiology and Internal Medicine, Barts NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, 2, 162 City Rd, London EC1V 2PD, UK.
⁵ Kardiologie, Angiologie und Internistische Intensivmedizin, Klinik für Innere Medizin III, Saarland University Hospital, Gebäude 41, Kirrberger Straße, 100, Homburg 66421, Germany.
⁶ Kardiologie, Angiologie und Internistische Intensivmedizin, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
⁷ Department of Cardiology, Deborah Heart & Lung Center, 200 Trenton Rd, Browns Mills, NJ 08015, USA.
⁸ Department of Cardiology, Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, Browns Mills, NJ 08015, USA.
⁹ Hypertension Department and DHU PARC, Université de Paris, 2 Rue de l'École de Médecine, Paris 75006, France.
¹⁰ AP-HP, Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, Hypertension Department and DMU CARTE, 20 Rue Leblanc, Paris 75015, France.
¹¹ Hypertension Department and DHU PARC, INSERM, CIC1418, 20 rue Leblanc, 75908 Paris Cedex 15, France.
¹² ReCor Medical, Inc., 1049 Elwell Ct, Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA.

Abstract

Aims: The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of social media as an approach to recruit hypertensive subjects.

Methods and results: In addition to conventional trial recruitment, Facebook ads were run. Over a 115-day recruitment period, Facebook reached 5.3 million people in 168 separate campaigns run in the proximity of 19 sites in the USA and 14 sites in Europe. A total of 182 839 participants (3.4%) clicked on the ad; of those 10 483 subjects (5.7%) completed a dedicated questionnaire. This resulted in 3632 potential candidates. A total of 285 potential candidates were recruited by various recruitment strategies in the specified time period, of which 184/285 (64.6%) came from Facebook. When comparing Facebook with a 7-day radio spot in the same time period, 48 radio spots were launched; resulting in nine inquiries with eventually five potential candidates and two consents.

Conclusion: Targeted social media was a successful and efficient strategy to recruit hypertensive subjects.

Keywords: Facebook; Hypertension; Recruitment; Social media; Trials.