Leveraging Social Media and Crowdsourcing to Recruit and Retain Military Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder or Experience of Harmful Gambling ...
Authors: C Heath, JM Williams, D Leightley
Published: 2025
Publication: JMIR mHealth and ..., 2025 - mhealth.jmir.org
Social media and online platforms like Facebook and Prolific were effective but faced challenges in recruiting and retaining military veterans with PTSD or harmful gambling for a digital mHealth intervention pilot study.
Methods: Multiple recruitment strategies were used, including paid and unpaid advertisements on Facebook, Prolific, direct mailing, event hosting with veterans' charities, snowball sampling, and incentives.
Key Findings: The effectiveness of different recruitment strategies for enrolling military veterans with PTSD or harmful gambling into a digital intervention study.
Limitations: Low advertisement conversion rates, participant attrition, and data attrition affected the overall recruitment and completion rates.
Institution: Swansea University, King's College London, Reykjavík University
Research Area: mHealth Interventions, Crowdsourcing, Social Media Recruitment,Mental Health Research (PTSD, Harmful Gambling)
Discipline: Digital Health , Mental Health Research
Sample Size: 79 participants