Studying Cannabis Use Behaviors With Facebook and Web Surveys: Methods and Insights - PubMed (original) (raw)

Studying Cannabis Use Behaviors With Facebook and Web Surveys: Methods and Insights

Jacob T Borodovsky et al. JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2018.

Abstract

The rapid and wide-reaching expansion of internet access and digital technologies offers epidemiologists numerous opportunities to study health behaviors. One particularly promising new data collection strategy is the use of Facebook's advertising platform in conjunction with Web-based surveys. Our research team at the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health has used this quick and cost-efficient method to recruit large samples and address unique scientific questions related to cannabis use. In conducting this research, we have gleaned several insights for using this sampling method effectively and have begun to document the characteristics of the resulting data. We believe this information could be useful to other researchers attempting to study cannabis use or, potentially, other health behaviors. The first aim of this paper is to describe case examples of procedures for using Facebook as a survey sampling method for studying cannabis use. We then present several distinctive features of the data produced using this method. Finally, we discuss the utility of this sampling method for addressing specific types of epidemiological research questions. Overall, we believe that sampling with Facebook advertisements and Web surveys is best conceptualized as a targeted, nonprobability-based method for oversampling cannabis users across the United States.

Keywords: cannabis; cross-sectional studies; data collection; epidemiology; sampling studies; social media; surveys.

©Jacob T Borodovsky, Lisa A Marsch, Alan J Budney. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 02.05.2018.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Click and cost results from a recent cannabis-targeted Facebook advertising campaign.

Figure 2

Figure 2

Sample advertisement distributed via Facebook advertising.

Figure 3

Figure 3

Comparisons between Facebook-generated cannabis use data and cannabis use data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).

Figure 4

Figure 4

Percentage of US population in each state versus percentage of Facebook sample in each state.

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