October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Canada. As part of our commitment to open science, JMIR Publications is highlighting research published in our journals aimed at understanding and combating this disease. We hope this research reaches a wide audience and empowers people to learn more about their risk and risk mitigation strategies.
Recruiting participants for research studies is always challenging, but it becomes particularly difficult when targeting a small, specific population, such as women at high risk (≥20% lifetime risk) for breast cancer. Understanding and addressing barriers to risk management for these women is crucial, yet researchers often struggle to find them outside of traditional clinical settings.
Dr. Claire Conley, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Oncology at Georgetown University and a clinical psychologist by training, led a study to compare the effectiveness of various recruitment strategies for this unique population. Her team’s work, which provides a roadmap for future research, was recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Casting a Wide Net
Dr. Conley and her co-authors used a variety of methods to recruit participants for their cross-sectional, observational study. Strategies ranged from targeted Facebook advertisements and Twitter posts to leveraging the ResearchMatch database, community partner promotions, and even traditional paper flyers.
The sheer volume of responses was notable: the team received 1566 unique responses to their eligibility screener. Participants most often reported being recruited via Facebook ads (46%) and ResearchMatch (41%). However, the number of eligible participants, the cost-effectiveness, and the resulting demographic diversity varied widely by method.
The Most Effective, and Most Efficient, Methods
The study provided a number of insights into recruitment efficiency:
The findings clearly support the feasibility of recruiting high-risk women outside of clinics, but they also emphasize that researchers must carefully balance cost and yield when planning future studies. The most cost-effective methods often involved leveraging existing networks where eligible individuals were already concentrated.
Diversifying Recruitment for Representation
A major challenge in recruitment is ensuring diversity. The eligible sample was predominantly non-Hispanic White (83%). However, the study successfully demonstrated that specific strategies are more effective at reaching underrepresented groups:
This pattern suggests that using a diverse array of recruitment channels, particularly those that target specific community or interest groups, is essential for reaching a more representative sample. The key is akin to audience segmentation in marketing: different groups congregate in different digital and physical spaces, and recruitment must be tailored accordingly.
Dr. Conley and her co-authors chose to submit their work to the Journal of Medical Internet Research because they valued the journal's open access model, which ensures their findings can be read by people from many different disciplines worldwide. They also praised the journal's rigorous, high-quality peer review process and timely communication.
Curious to learn more about the strategic recruitment tactics that can diversify research and accelerate scientific discovery? Watch the video to hear Dr. Claire Conley discuss her team's findings, and read the full research article to explore the detailed analysis of recruitment metrics. To further explore breast cancer prevention and detection guidelines, please visit the Canadian Cancer Society's official resources.
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