The DOI matches its Crossref record; 114 of the 115 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Recruiting for health, medical or psychosocial research using Facebook: Systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Recruiting participants is a challenge for many health, medical and psychosocial research projects. One tool more frequently being used to improve recruitment is the social networking website Facebook. A systematic review was conducted to identify studies that have used Facebook to recruit participants of all ages, to any psychosocial, health or medical research. 110 unique studies that used Facebook as a recruitment source were included in the review. The majority of studies used a cross-sectional design (80%) and addressed a physical health or disease issue (57%). Half (49%) of the included studies reported specific details of the Facebook recruitment process. Researchers paid between $1.36 and $110 per completing participants (Mean = $17.48, SD = $23.06). Among studies that examined the representativeness of their sample, the majority concluded (86%) their Facebook-recruited samples were similarly representative of samples recruited via traditional methods. These results indicate that Facebook is an effective and cost-efficient recruitment method. Researchers should consider their target group, advertisement wording, offering incentives and no-cost methods of recruitment when considering Facebook as a recruitment source. It is hoped this review will assist researchers to make decisions regarding the use of Facebook as a recruitment tool in future research. • Health, medical and psychosocial research recruiting participants of all ages via Facebook is reviewed. • Results suggest Facebook is an effective and cost efficient recruitment method. • Results suggest Facebook can be used to obtain samples similarly representative to samples recruited via traditional methods.
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“Samples recruited by Facebook have been found to present similar representativeness to convention methods in achieving age and gender distribution and are usually less costly [53].”
From A mobile health intervention (LifeBuoy App) to help young people manage suicidal thoughts: protocol for a mixed-methods randomized controlled trial (2020) · cites this paper as [53]
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Citations
Cites
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“It has also been suggested as a particularly useful resource for recruiting younger people, (Christofides et al., 2009; Raacke and Bonds-Raacke, 2008), and low incidence and stigmatized groups, due to the anonymity and confidentiality that sites such as Facebook can afford (Balfe et al.”
BackgroundChristofides, E., Muise, A., & Desmarais, S. (2009) · CyberPsychology & Behavior · doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0226 · Cited by 696
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Web-Based Recruiting for Health Research Using a Social Networking Site: An Exploratory Study
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“…representativeness relative to samples obtained by traditional recruitment methods, such as post or phone (seven studies: DiBenedetti et al., 2014; Fazzino et al., 2015; Frandsen et al., 2014; Fenner et al., 2012; Hernandez-Romieu et al., 2014; Batterham, 2014; Vrangalova and Savin-Williams, 2012).”
MethodHow Accurate is Web-Based Self-Reported Height, Weight, and Body Mass Index in Young Adults?
Pursey, K., Burrows, T. L., Stanwell, P., & Collins, C. E. (2014) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.2909 · Cited by 292
The Impact of Contemporary Contact Lenses on Contact Lens Discontinuation
Dumbleton, K., Woods, C. A., Jones, L., & Fonn, D. (2012) · Eye & Contact Lens Science & Clinical Practice · doi:10.1097/icl.0b013e318271caf4 · Cited by 271
King, D. B., O’Rourke, N., & DeLongis, A. (2014) · Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne · doi:10.1037/a0038087 · Cited by 269
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 115 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Boyce, 2013, Effect of videogame play and extracurricular activities on parent perceived socio-emotional functioning in children and adolescents, Int. J. Psychol. Biopsychosocial Approach, 12
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Sorted by citations
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Public awareness and understanding of DOHaD concepts in Aotearoa New Zealand
Hildreth, J. R., & Bay, J. L. (2025) · Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease · doi:10.1017/s2040174425000145
“International evidence suggests social media may increase engagement with harder-to-reach communities 55,56 .”
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McConnell, K., Topley, D., McKeown, J., & Kerr, C. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.18230581
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Venesoja, A., Lindström, V., Aronen, P., Castrén, M., & Tella, S. (2021) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.16800439
Poranen, A., Kouvonen, A. M., & Nordquist, H. (2024) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.26944380
McConnell, K., Topley, D., McKeown, J., & Kerr, C. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.18230584
Poranen, A., Kouvonen, A. M., & Nordquist, H. (2024) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.26944377
Basking in Detected Vice: Outgroup Immorality Enhances Self-ViewPreprint
Graupmann, V., Brambilla, M., & Sacchi, S. (2019) · OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)
Pangestu, R. D., Larasati, D., & Indraprastha, A. (2025) · Cleaner and Responsible Consumption · doi:10.1016/j.clrc.2025.100381
Perceptions of Proportionality
Dorey, C. M., Schwind, B., Spitale, G., Jafflin, K. G., & Biller‐Andorno, N. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197759370.003.0005
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“Data was collected for three weeks in July 2024 via social media, which has been previously shown to be an effective way to collect data in health, medical, and social research [30, 31].”
Elsahoryi, N. A., Abu-Alhija, T. S., & Alhaj, O. A. (2026) · Discover Mental Health · doi:10.1007/s44192-026-00469-6
“Naturally, these requirements were coded in terms of screening questions at the beginning of the survey, where the ineligible respondents were automatically dismissed [26].”
Zandbergen, M. M. E., de Kok, I. M. C. M., Witt, M. A. T., Soomers, F. R. M., & Jansen, E. E. L. (2026) · doi:10.2196/preprints.107005
Rusu, R. V., Rusu, D. O., & Delcea, C. (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs16081380
“Social media recruitment has become an increasingly common and cost-effective method for enrolling pregnant women in health and psychological research, allowing researchers to efficiently reach geographically diverse samples (Thornton et al., 2016).”
Pan, J., Zhang, Y., Wu, R., Cui, Y., & Yang, H. (2026) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1888283
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Careless Assemblages: Examining Care and Violence After Men’s Unwanted Sexual Experiences
Bonner‐Thompson, C., McGregor, K., Preston, J., & Stander, W. J. (2026) · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · doi:10.1111/tran.70093
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Metadata
- Authors
- Thornton, L., Batterham, P. J., Fassnacht, D. B., Kay-Lambkin, F., Calear, A. L., & Hunt, S.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Australian National University (AU)
- Venue
- Internet Interventions
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-05
- Volume
- 4
- Pages
- 72-81
- ISSN
- 2214-7829 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6096238
- OpenAlex
- W2282737262
- Cited by
- 326
- References
- 115
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 57 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 4.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Internet Interventions (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NOVA (University of Newcastle Australia) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of New South Wales
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
- Keywords
- Facebook, participant recruitment, social networking sites, online recruitment, recruitment incentives, sample representativeness, health research, medical research, psychosocial research
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