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

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 res...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AIDS and behavior 2018, Vol.22 (1), p.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: Article
Language:English
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
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1090-7165
1573-3254
DOI:10.1007/s10461-017-1956-6