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Recruiting for addiction research via F acebook
Author(s) -
Thornton Louise K.,
Harris Keith,
Baker Amanda L.,
Johnson Martin,
KayLambkin Frances J.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1111/dar.12305
Subject(s) - addiction , psychological distress , cannabis , medicine , cyberpsychology , distress , clinical psychology , mental health , psychology , psychiatry , social media , political science , law
and Aims This study aimed to examine the feasibility of recruiting participants to addiction research via F acebook. Design and Methods Participants were recruited via an advertisement on F acebook, a local research register and university psychology courses. Participants completed a self‐report survey regarding substance use, history of mental health issues and current psychological distress. Results The 524 participants recruited via F acebook cost $1.86 per participant; and 418 participants were recruited via more traditional methods. There were significantly fewer women in the F acebook sample compared with the non‐ F acebook sample ( χ 2 = 196.61, P < 0.001), but no differences on age. Significantly more F acebook participants reported current use of tobacco (women: F acebook = 57%, non‐ F acebook = 21%, χ 2 = 39.71, P < 0.001; men: F acebook = 62%, non‐ F acebook = 21%, χ 2 = 32.429, P < 0.001) and cannabis (women: F acebook = 26%, non‐ F acebook = 7%, χ 2 = 14.364, P < 0.001; men: F acebook = 46%, non‐ F acebook = 24%, χ 2 = 6.765, P < 0.01). They also reported significantly more harmful use of tobacco [women: F degrees of freedom (d.f.) = 6.07, P < 0.05; men: F (d.f.) = 9.03, P < 0.01] and cannabis [women: F (d.f.) = 11.00, P < 0.01; men: F (d.f.) = 6.40, P < 0.05]. The F acebook sample contained a higher percentage of high‐severity cannabis users (women: F acebook = 24%, non‐ F acebook = 4%, χ 2 = 18.12, P < 0.001; men: F acebook = 43%, non‐ F acebook = 16%, χ 2 = 10.00, P < 0.01) and reported significantly more severe depressive symptoms [women: F (d.f.) = 26.38, P < 0.001; men: F (d.f.) = 7.44, P < 0.05]. Discussion and Conclusions Through F acebook, we were able to capture a greater proportion of people with high‐severity substance use and mental health issues and were able to capture a greater and more severe range of substance use behaviours. This suggests social networking sites are efficient, cost‐effective ways to recruit large numbers of participants, with relevant behaviours and conditions, to addiction research. [Thornton LK, Harris K, Baker AL, Johnson M, Kay‐Lambkin FJ. Recruiting for addiction research via Facebook. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:494–502]