Mixed-Method Evaluation of Social Media-Based Tools and Traditional Strategies to Recruit High-Risk and Hard-to-Reach Populations into an HIV Prevention Intervention Study

• Published in: AIDS and behavior Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 347 - 357
• Main Authors: Iribarren, Sarah J., Ghazzawi, Alhasan, Sheinfil, Alan Z., Frasca, Timothy, Brown, William, Lopez-Rios, Javier, Rael, Christine T., Balán, Iván C., Crespo, Raynier, Dolezal, Curtis, Giguere, Rebecca, Carballo-Diéguez, Alex
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.01.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Digital media; Disease prevention; Gays & lesbians; Health disparities; Health Psychology; Hispanic Americans; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Human subjects; Infectious Diseases; Mass media; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Men; Men who have sex with men; Mens health; Mixed methods research; Original Paper; Populations; Prevention; Public Health; Recruitment; Risk analysis; Risk behavior; Risk management; Risk reduction; Risk taking; Screening; Sexually transmitted diseases; Social media; Social networks; STD; Strategies; Tests; Transgender persons; Volunteers; Ethnic minorities; HIV prevention; Latino; Men who have sex with men; Recruitment; Social-media based recruitment strategies
• ISSN: 1090-7165; 1573-3254; 1573-3254
• DOI: 10.1007/s10461-017-1956-6

Men who have sex with men and transgender women are hard-to-reach populations for research. Social media-based tools may overcome certain barriers in accessing these groups and are being tested in an ongoing study exploring HIV home-test kit use to reduce risk behavior. We analyzed pre-screening responses about how volunteers learned about the study (n = 896) and demographic data from eligible participants who came for an initial study visit (n = 216) to determine the strengths and weaknesses of recruitment strategies. Social media-based strategies resulted in the highest number of individuals screened (n = 444, 26% eligible). Dating sites/apps reached large numbers of eligible participants. White-Hispanics and African-Americans were more likely to be recruited through personal contacts; community events successfully reached Hispanic volunteers. Incorporating recruitment queries into pre-screening forms can help modify recruitment strategies for greater efficacy and efficiency. Findings suggest that recruitment strategies need to be tailored to reach specific target populations.