ASPO Abstracts
Cancer Prevention Research During a Pandemic: The Impact of Social Media Advertising
Category: COVID-19 and Cancer
Conference Year: 2021
Abstract Body:
Background: The impacts of COVID-19 can be found everywhere; however, little is known on how pandemics
affect cancer-related research. Efficient participant recruitment in clinical trials is imperative to the validity and
generalizability of research findings. The goal of this study is to examine differences in participant recruitment in a
smoking cessation clinical trial that utilized social media advertisements pre and post-COVID-19.
Methods: Recruitment rates were examined pre-COVID-19 (July 2019-February 2020) and during COVID-19
(March 2020- July 2020). Participants were recruited using Facebook and Instagram ads. Eligible participants
consisted of 18-40-year-old, premenopausal, female individuals who smoke and intended to quit smoking within
30 days. Recruitment was a three-step process: (a) an initial online eligibility screening survey, (b) a telephone
eligibility interview, (c) and, if eligible, an informed consent and baseline surveys on REDCap.
Results: Recruitment ran for approximately 61 weeks prior to COVID-19 and 22 weeks during. The pre-COVID-19
time frame produced more recruitment numbers for the initial online eligibility screening survey (n=1424 vs.
n=598). Pre-COVID-19, of the 1424 who completed the eligibility screening, 9.41% (n=134) completed the phone
screen compared to during COVID-19, where of the 598, 9.87% (n= 59) completed the phone screen. For final
enrollment, of the 134 who completed the phone screen pre-COVID-19 59% (n= 79) completed the informed
consent and baseline surveys, compared to 66.1% of 59 (n= 39) during COVID-19. Race, ethnicity, and age
differences between the two time periods were negligible. The pre-COVID-19 average monthly recruitment cost
was approximately $398.71 while during was $3,703.39. The cost per participant pre-COVID-19 was
approximately $70.66 while during was $474.79.
Discussion: While COVID-19 may have impacted participants' ability to continue or enroll in a study, factors such
as online transitions, social media, and funding have helped some cancer researchers continue their work. The
COVID-19 time frame recruited half the participants of the pre-COVID time frame despite being approximately
seven times shorter which was in large due to the increased amount of monthly advertisement spending.
Keywords: COVID-19, Recruitment, Tobacco-cessation, Cancer Prevention