Published on Authors of this article:. Background: The prevalence of social media use among youth and young adults suggests it is an appropriate platform for study recruitment from this population. Previous studies have examined the use of social media for recruitment, but few have compared platforms, and none, to our knowledge, have attempted to recruit cigarillo users.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of different social media platforms and advertisement images for recruiting cigarillo users aged years to complete a cigarillo use survey. Methods: We obtained objective data for advertisement impressions for a week social media recruitment campaign. Advertisements were targeted to users based on their age, geography, and interests. Effectiveness was defined as the percentage of approved surveys per advertising impression.
Chi-square tests were performed to compare the effectiveness of different advertisement images and platforms. Advertisements on Facebook were more effective than Twitter. Advertisements that featured an image of a cigarillo were consistently the most effective and should be considered by others recruiting cigarillo users via social media. Recent data on smoking prevalence indicates that a substantial proportion of youth in the US smoke cigar products, including cigarillos [ 1 ].
Like other tobacco products, cigarillo use increases the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mortality, and some early evidence suggests that cigarillos may be more harmful to organ systems than cigarettes [ 2 ]. Cigarillo use is also concentrated among young, urban, minority populations that have traditionally experienced health disparities related to tobacco use and may be more vulnerable to the long-term harmful effects of smoking [ 3 ].
Considering the public health risk presented by cigarillo use, understanding patterns of use and the addictive properties of these products via survey research could serve as the first step in reversing current trends in their adoption and use by youth and young adults. Recruiting cigarillo users for survey research presents unique challenges using traditional methods. Youth and young adults are less likely to respond to survey recruitment via telephone and change their residency often, making mail-based recruitment less effective [ 4 ].
