TY  - JOUR
AU  - Davies, Benjamin
AU  - Kotter, Mark
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/02/05
TI  - Lessons From Recruitment to an Internet-Based Survey for Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: Comparison of Free and Fee-Based Methods
JO  - JMIR Res Protoc
SP  - e18
VL  - 7
IS  - 2
KW  - cervical
KW  - myelopathy
KW  - spondylosis
KW  - spondylotic
KW  - stenosis
KW  - disc herniation
KW  - ossification posterior longitudinal ligament
KW  - degeneration
KW  - disability
KW  - recovery
KW  - questionnaire
KW  - Internet survey
KW  - Google Adwords
KW  - advertising
KW  - social media
KW  - electronic survey
KW  - Internet
KW  - survey
AB  - Background: Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy (DCM) is a syndrome of subacute cervical spinal cord compression due to spinal degeneration. Although DCM is thought to be common, many fundamental questions such as the natural history and epidemiology of DCM remain unknown. In order to answer these, access to a large cohort of patients with DCM is required. With its unrivalled and efficient reach, the Internet has become an attractive tool for medical research and may overcome these limitations in DCM. The most effective recruitment strategy, however, is unknown. Objective: To compare the efficacy of fee-based advertisement with alternative free recruitment strategies to a DCM Internet health survey. Methods: An Internet health survey (SurveyMonkey) accessed by a new DCM Internet platform (myelopathy.org) was created. Using multiple survey collectors and the website’s Google Analytics, the efficacy of fee-based recruitment strategies (Google AdWords) and free alternatives (including Facebook, Twitter, and myelopathy.org) were compared. Results: Overall, 760 surveys (513 [68%] fully completed) were accessed, 305 (40%) from fee-based strategies and 455 (60%) from free alternatives. Accounting for researcher time, fee-based strategies were more expensive ($7.8 per response compared to $3.8 per response for free alternatives) and identified a less motivated audience (Click-Through-Rate of 5% compared to 57% using free alternatives) but were more time efficient for the researcher (2 minutes per response compared to 16 minutes per response for free methods). Facebook was the most effective free strategy, providing 239 (31%) responses, where a single message to 4 existing communities yielded 133 (18%) responses within 7 days. Conclusions: The Internet can efficiently reach large numbers of patients. Free and fee-based recruitment strategies both have merits. Facebook communities are a rich resource for Internet researchers. 
SN  - 1929-0748
UR  - http://www.researchprotocols.org/2018/2/e18/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.6567
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29402760
DO  - 10.2196/resprot.6567
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/resprot.6567
ER  -