Online and Offline Recruitment of Young Women for a Longitudinal Health Survey: Findings From the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health 1989-95 Cohort.

BACKGROUND: In 2012, we set out to recruit a cohort of at least 10,000 women aged 18-23 from across Australia. With recent research demonstrating the inadequacy of traditional approaches to recruiting women in this age group, we elected to conduct open recruiting. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to report on the overall success of open recruiting and to evaluate the relative success of a variety of recruitment methods in terms of numbers and demographics. METHODS: We used referrals, Facebook, formal advertising, and incentives in order to recruit the cohort. RESULTS: In all, 17,069 women were recruited for the longitudinal online survey, from 54,685 initiated surveys. Of these women, most (69.94%, n=11,799) who joined the longitudinal cohort were recruited via Facebook, 12.72% (n=2145) via the fashion promotion, 7.02% (n=1184) by referral, 4.9% (n=831) via other Web activities, and 5.4% (n=910) via traditional media. CONCLUSIONS: Facebook was by far the most successful strategy, enrolling a cohort of women with a similar profile to the population of Australian women in terms of age, area of residence, and relationship status. Women recruited via fashion promotion were the least representative. All strategies underrepresented less educated women-a finding that is consistent with more traditional means of recruiting. In conclusion, flexibility in recruitment design, embracing new and traditional media, adopting a dynamic responsive approach, and monitoring the results of recruiting in terms of sample composition and number recruited led to the successful establishment of a new cohort.

Lifestyle behaviors and related health risk factors in a sample of Australian university students.

Objective: To describe lifestyle behaviors (fruit and vegetable intake, alcohol intake, physical activity, sitting time, smoking, drug use, sleep, sexual health) and health risk factors (body mass index, food insecurity, mental health) in a sample of Australian university students. Participants: 3,077 students from the University of Newcastle (UON), Australia (mean age 27.1 ± 9.8 years, 69.4% female) were surveyed in September-October 2017. Methods: Cross-sectional self-report survey, the UON Student Healthy Lifestyle Survey 2017. Results: Participants with unhealthy lifestyle behaviors included; 89.5% not meeting vegetable recommendations, 50.3% exceeding lifetime risk guidelines for alcohol intake, and 38.1% insufficiently physically active. Rates of health risk factors included; 39.6% overweight/obese, 37.6% high or very high risk of psychological distress, and 22.0% food insecure. Conclusions: Rates of unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and related health risk factors were high within the study population, highlighting the importance of ongoing monitoring and prioritization of effective strategies to improve university student health.