Anita O’Connor|Leigh Jackson|Lesley Goldsmith|Heather Skirton
Can I get a retweet please? Health research recruitment and the Twittersphere
University of Plymouth|University of Plymouth|University of Plymouth|University of Plymouth
evaluate social networking site twitter vehicle recruitment online health research examine twitter community would share information focus study antenatal experience mothers advanced maternal ageone result growth worldwide internet mobile phone usage increased ability source health information online use social media sites including facebook twitter although social media used previous health research lack literature use twitter health researcha crosssectional surveywe report novel recruitment method via social networking site may august 2012 twitter account tweeted requested twitter users retweet invitation involved study tweets contained unique url directing participants online survey hosted survey monkey websiteover 11 weeks 749 original tweets posted researcher total 529 mothers accessed survey result 359 researcher tweets subsequent retweets seen twitter users survey fully completed 299 565 participantstwitter costeffective means recruitment enabling engagement potentially difficulttoreach populations providing participants transparency anonymity accessible method participate health research