Rural High School Students Preferred Method of Contact for Reminders of Study Participation

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  Utilization of technology and social media is a daily activity with the majority of high school students. The current extant literature is lacking regarding students’ most preferred method of being contacted for ongoing study participation. This descriptive study, nested within an ongoing randomized control trial (RCT), determined rural high school students preferred method of being contacted for reminders of study participation. 

Methods:  Research subjects (N=206) were southern, rural 9^th – 11^th graders, enrolled in an ongoing RCT that targeted asthma management and tobacco use. Four methods were used to contact the students weekly with the goal of reminding them of scheduled times to complete study measures and for compliance with study protocol. The four methods included: personal telephone calls from a familiar study team member to their mobile devices, recorded telephone calls with a familiar study team member using the PostCalls™ System to their mobile devices, Facebook messages, and text messages/email. Of the 206 students, 192 (93.2%) completed six computer sessions within the prescribed study timeframe and were asked to complete the “preferred method of contact” survey. The survey was anonymous and requested students to select the one method of contact they had liked best (preferred). 188 students, largely females (58%; N=109), returned the completed survey: 71% (N=133) African American [AA], 26% (N=49) Caucasian, and 3% (N=6) Hispanic, Asian, or Other. Student composition included primarily 10^th (48%; N=90) and 11^th (37%; N=69) graders. Ten surveys were not included in the final analyses due to multiple answers being chosen; the final sample included 178 surveys.

Results:  Analysis of survey responses revealed the rural high school students preferred the recorded phone calls via the PostCalls™ system to keep them informed of upcoming research events (53.4%; N=95). Nearly a fourth of the students preferred the personal calls to their mobile device (23.6%, N=42), followed by text messaging/email (15.1%; N=27), with Facebook being the least preferred method (7.9%; N=14).

Conclusions:  Rural high school students, largely AA, identified they preferred recorded phone calls from a voice they know and recognize to remind them which days and times they should be present for study participation. This is a positive finding given the PostCalls™ method was the most efficient method of contact for the research team and ensured that all students were being contacted and getting the same, consistent, and correct message. Reasons why PostCalls™ was the preferred method may be three-fold: 1) once a subject answered the telephone, they did not have to talk to anyone, only listen to the message; 2) students did not have to log-in to a website to check for messages as the message came right to their preferred telephone number; and 3) using pre-recorded phone calls was free of charge to all students when some had costs associated with receiving a text message.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Gaining information on the preferred method of contacting rural high school students may be beneficial in helping achieve study compliance and may be beneficial to researchers who need to reach a large number of study participants.