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Comparative Analysis of Recruitment Strategies in a Study of Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in Metropolitan Detroit

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Abstract

HIV/AIDS-related research requires recruitment of representative samples of MSM; yet, we know little about the comparative yield, diversity and cost–benefit tradeoffs between different recruitment venues. We compared 11 recruitment venues used for nine HIV prevention-related focus groups with MSM in Metropolitan Detroit. Of the 64 participants, 24 were clients recruited via an HIV/AIDS-focused nonprofit, 20 from Grindr advertisements, 6 from university-student email lists, and 5 from flyers/palmcards. Significantly more African–American, low-income and HIV-positive participants were recruited via the nonprofit. The best cost–benefit tradeoffs were for organizational Facebook posts, email groups, personal networking, and nonprofit recruitment. Grindr increased the size of the sample, though at greater expense. Facebook and Scruff advertisements and gay bar outreach represented greater costs than benefits. Only 11.6% of Grindr respondents attended the focus groups. A mix of online and offline recruitment venues can generate a large and diverse sample of MSM, but venue performance is uneven.

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Funding

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health Grant #UL1TR002240 (UL1TR000433). Advertisements placed at Facebook and Scruff were donated to the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information, University of Michigan, 3443 North Quad, 105 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1285, USA

    Bradley E. Iott & Tiffany C. Veinot

  2. Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Bradley E. Iott

  3. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Tiffany C. Veinot

  4. Unified – HIV Health and Beyond, Ypsilanti, MI, USA

    Jimena Loveluck, Leon Golson & Akilah Benton

  5. School of Nursing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Erin Kahle

Authors
  1. Bradley E. Iott
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  2. Tiffany C. Veinot
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  3. Jimena Loveluck
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  4. Erin Kahle
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  5. Leon Golson
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  6. Akilah Benton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tiffany C. Veinot.

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Conflict of interest

Loveluck, Golson and Benton were employees of Unified HIV Health and Beyond at the time of this study’s conduct.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Michigan’s Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences IRB.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Iott, B.E., Veinot, T.C., Loveluck, J. et al. Comparative Analysis of Recruitment Strategies in a Study of Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in Metropolitan Detroit. AIDS Behav 22, 2296–2311 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2071-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2071-z

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