Social Networking as a Recruitment Strategy for Mexican American Families in Community Health Research

Abstract

A multi-component strategy for recruiting families for community health research was tested among 65 Mexican American families in Galveston, Texas. This strategy, heavily relying on social networking techniques, resulted in an 88% recruitment rate. Most of the desired participants were obtained within five weeks. While the strategy is labor-intensive and may result in sampling bias, the high recruitment rate indicates that the strategy deserves further application in a variety of settings.