Effectiveness of the recruitment strategies used in the Baby-Feed Online Trial, a trial to test an educational web application for caregivers to prevent excessive weight gain in infants.

Abstract

Background/aims: To analyze the effectiveness of recruitment methods in the Baby-Feed Online Trial.

Methods: This randomized clinical trial evaluated an online educational intervention for caregivers to monitor and improve their infants' diets and growth. Caregivers of infants aged <4 months living in the United States were recruited using various sources, including "Traditional" (flyers and snowball) and "Online" (social media and blast emails) methods. All methods led to an online pre-screening survey using Qualtrics, a secure, web-based survey platform, to assess eligibility. We analyzed the number of pre-screenings completed by recruitment method, their socio-demographics, and issues with bots. The Florida International University-Institutional Review Board approved the study.

Results: Of the 1213 pre-screenings received, 84% were identified as bots or spam, prompting the implementation of additional security tools in the online pre-screener and a verification call. Within 6 months, 155 individuals were enrolled; 51% came from "Traditional" strategies and 49% from "Online" strategies. The most effective methods were incentivized snowball referrals from enrolled participants, other strategies from the Florida International University research team (referrals, emails, social media posts), and posts in Facebook groups. Participants were recruited from 24 states, with the largest proportion coming from Florida (N = 50; 32.3%). From enrolled participants, 95.5% were mothers aged 34.2 (5.0) years, 16% were participants of the Women, Infant, and Children Program, 65.2% were White, 25.2% were Hispanics, 83.2% had a bachelor's degree or higher, and the mean parental body mass index was 27.3 (4.6) kg/m². The infant's age at enrollment was 2.2 (1.1) months. No significant differences were observed between the "Traditional" and "Online" recruitment methods in any socio-demographic characteristics.

Conclusion: Both recruitment strategies were crucial in recruiting the required sample within a short period with no socio-demographic differences. The incentivized snowball referrals proved to be the most successful strategy. Although a critical challenge was the substantial number of bots, our recruitment plan was effective in recruiting caregivers. However, these strategies were effective in recruiting a highly educated group.