(P11-046-25) Digital Advertising for Recruitment of Older Women in Nutrition Research

Objectives: Clinical trials in older person routinely face substantial challenges in the recruitment and retention of eligible and adherent participants. The effectiveness of digital advertising for recruitment in studies of older adults has not been adequately evaluated. The goal of this study was to understand recruitment yield from digital advertising for a randomized controlled trial in older women.

Methods: Synbiotic To Attenuate Resorption of the Skeleton (STARS) is an individual-level, blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial to test the efficacy of a synbiotic combination on reducing bone loss in women over age 60. An advertising campaign was developed with BuildClinical, which utilizes data mining and machine learning on digital advertising displayed by search engines, health websites and social media platforms to engage and direct potential eligible individuals to a web-based screening form related to study inclusion criteria. Potential participants were pre-screened by phone prior to in-person screening and informed consenting. The flow of recruitment between August through December 2024 was compared with traditional recruitment sources (e.g., local advertisement, podcast, etc.).

Results: 268 individuals expressed interest through the BuildClinical campaign, and 7 women expressed interest through traditional recruitment sources. Of the 268 women contacted via BuildClinical, 164 were ineligible based on the online screening form [5 (aged < 60y), 3 (men), 157 (exclusionary medical conditions), 18 (BMI >35kg/m²), 2 (current smokers), 24 (recent antibiotic use), 2 (allergic to intervention ingredients)]. Of the 111 eligible participants, 62 underwent phone pre-screening and 17 in-person screening; 14 were enrolled and 10 randomized. Based on early-stage enrollment, the mean age of study participants is 69 (SD: 6 yrs). For similar studies of older adults, the pre-screening pace is 8-10 individuals per month while for our study it is 14 individuals per month.

Conclusions: Digital advertising as used in the STARS project represents an innovative, feasible, and practical approach to improve the recruitment pace of older women in dietary intervention studies.

Funding Sources: NIH/NIA R01AG79952