Learning Objective #1: Understand the issues in Internet recruitment of ethnic minorities

Learning Objective #2: Understand implications of the issues for future Internet research in nursing

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BACKGROUND: Recruitment of ethnic minorities for Internet research is more complicated and difficult than that for traditional research because the Internet communication is non-face-to-face interactions and because the Internet populations tend to be a selected group of people. THEORETICAL BASIS/RATIONALE: By examining challenges to recruitment of ethnic minorities in this new research setting, many of the pitfalls of minority recruitment in future Internet research may be avoided. PURPOSE AND METHODS: Issues in the recruitment of ethnic minorities through the Internet are explored through an analysis of an Internet survey study among middle-aged women. Throughout the research process, research staff recorded recruitment issues as they arose and wrote memos that also suggested possible reasons. Weekly group discussions were conducted, and written records of these discussions were kept. The memos and records were reviewed and analyzed using the content analysis technique suggested by Weber. DISCUSSION: The idea categories/issues found through the analysis process include: (a) authenticity; (b) gate keepers; (c) flexibility; (d) response rate; and (e) selection bias. It was difficult to ensure the authenticity of the participants and to get help from the gate keepers due to the increasing number of spam mails. Flexibility in recruitment strategies was essential to recruit the targeted number of ethnic minorities. A very low response rate (3%) was found, and the participants tended to be highly educated, high-income, White women. CONCLUSIONS: For future Internet research, we suggest regular updates of knowledge and skills related to Internet interactions and technologies, usage of multiple recruitment sources, pluralistic recruitment approaches, and a quota sampling method.