TY - JOUR
T1 - Using Social Media to Facilitate Communication About Women’s Testing
T2 - Tool Validation Study
AU - Coffin, Tara
AU - Bowen, Deborah
AU - Lu, Karen
AU - Swisher, Elizabeth M.
AU - Rayes, Nadine
AU - Norquist, Barbara
AU - Blank, Stephanie V.
AU - Levine, Douglas A.
AU - Bakkum-Gamez, Jamie Nadine
AU - Fleming, Gini F.
AU - Olopade, Olufunmilayo I.
AU - Romero, Iris
AU - D'Andrea, Alan
AU - Nebgen, Denise R.
AU - Peterson, Christine
AU - Munsell, Mark F.
AU - Gavin, Kathleen
AU - Crase, Jamie
AU - Polinsky, Deborah
AU - Lechner, Rebecca
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)-Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance-National Ovarian Cancer Coalition Ovarian Cancer Dream Team Translational Research grant (grant number SU2C-AACR-DT16-15). SU2C is a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation. Research grants were administered by the American Association for Cancer Research, a scientific partner of SU2C.
Publisher Copyright:
©Tara Coffin, Deborah Bowen, Karen Lu, Elizabeth M Swisher, Nadine Rayes, Barbara Norquist, Stephanie V Blank, Douglas A Levine, Jamie Nadine Bakkum-Gamez, Gini F Fleming, Olufunmilayo I Olopade, Iris Romero, Alan D'Andrea, Denise R Nebgen, Christine Peterson, Mark F Munsell, Kathleen Gavin, Jamie Crase, Deborah Polinsky, Rebecca Lechner.
PY - 2022/9/1
Y1 - 2022/9/1
N2 - Background: Strong participant recruitment practices are critical to public health research but are difficult to achieve. Traditional recruitment practices are often time consuming, costly, and fail to adequately target difficult-to-reach populations. Social media platforms such as Facebook are well-positioned to address this area of need, enabling researchers to leverage existing social networks and deliver targeted information. The MAGENTA (Making Genetic Testing Accessible) study aimed to improve the availability of genetic testing for hereditary cancer susceptibility in at-risk individuals through the use of a web-based communication system along with social media advertisements to improve reach. Objective: This paper is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Facebook as an outreach tool for targeting women aged ≥30 years for recruitment in the MAGENTA study. Methods: We designed and implemented paid and unpaid social media posts with ongoing assessment as a primary means of research participant recruitment in collaboration with patient advocates. Facebook analytics were used to assess the effectiveness of paid and unpaid outreach efforts. Results: Over the course of the reported recruitment period, Facebook materials had a reach of 407,769 people and 57,248 (14.04%) instances of engagement, indicating that approximately 14.04% of people who saw information about the study on Facebook engaged with the content. Paid advertisements had a total reach of 373,682. Among those reached, just <15% (54,117/373,682, 14.48%) engaged with the page content. Unpaid posts published on the MAGENTA Facebook page resulted in a total of 34,087 reach and 3131 instances of engagement, indicating that around 9.19% (3131/34,087) of people who saw unpaid posts engaged. Women aged ≥65 years reported the best response rate, with approximately 43.95% (15,124/34,410) of reaches translating to engagement. Among the participants who completed the eligibility questionnaire, 27.44% (3837/13,983) had heard about the study through social media or another webpage. Conclusions: Facebook is a useful way of enhancing clinical trial recruitment of women aged ≥30 years who have a potentially increased risk for ovarian cancer by promoting news stories over social media, collaborating with patient advocacy groups, and running paid and unpaid campaigns.
AB - Background: Strong participant recruitment practices are critical to public health research but are difficult to achieve. Traditional recruitment practices are often time consuming, costly, and fail to adequately target difficult-to-reach populations. Social media platforms such as Facebook are well-positioned to address this area of need, enabling researchers to leverage existing social networks and deliver targeted information. The MAGENTA (Making Genetic Testing Accessible) study aimed to improve the availability of genetic testing for hereditary cancer susceptibility in at-risk individuals through the use of a web-based communication system along with social media advertisements to improve reach. Objective: This paper is aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Facebook as an outreach tool for targeting women aged ≥30 years for recruitment in the MAGENTA study. Methods: We designed and implemented paid and unpaid social media posts with ongoing assessment as a primary means of research participant recruitment in collaboration with patient advocates. Facebook analytics were used to assess the effectiveness of paid and unpaid outreach efforts. Results: Over the course of the reported recruitment period, Facebook materials had a reach of 407,769 people and 57,248 (14.04%) instances of engagement, indicating that approximately 14.04% of people who saw information about the study on Facebook engaged with the content. Paid advertisements had a total reach of 373,682. Among those reached, just <15% (54,117/373,682, 14.48%) engaged with the page content. Unpaid posts published on the MAGENTA Facebook page resulted in a total of 34,087 reach and 3131 instances of engagement, indicating that around 9.19% (3131/34,087) of people who saw unpaid posts engaged. Women aged ≥65 years reported the best response rate, with approximately 43.95% (15,124/34,410) of reaches translating to engagement. Among the participants who completed the eligibility questionnaire, 27.44% (3837/13,983) had heard about the study through social media or another webpage. Conclusions: Facebook is a useful way of enhancing clinical trial recruitment of women aged ≥30 years who have a potentially increased risk for ovarian cancer by promoting news stories over social media, collaborating with patient advocacy groups, and running paid and unpaid campaigns.
KW - Facebook
KW - genetic testing
KW - hereditary cancer
KW - mobile phone
KW - online social media recruitment
KW - ovarian cancer
KW - social media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139731645&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139731645&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/35035
DO - 10.2196/35035
M3 - Article
C2 - 36155347
AN - SCOPUS:85139731645
SN - 2561-326X
VL - 6
JO - JMIR Formative Research
JF - JMIR Formative Research
IS - 9
M1 - e35035
ER -