Background: Tobacco public education campaigns focus increasingly on hard-to-reach populations at higher risk for smoking, prompting campaign creators and evaluators to develop strategies to reach hard-to-reach populations in virtual and physical spaces where they spend time. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe two novel recruitment strategies (in-person intercept interviews in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] social venues and targeted social media ads) and compares characteristics of participants recruited via these strategies for the US Food and Drug Administration’s This Free Life campaign evaluation targeting LGBT young adults who smoke cigarettes occasionally. Methods: We recruited LGBT adults aged 18-24 years in the United States via Facebook and Instagram ads (N=1709, mean age 20.94, SD 1.94) or intercept in LGBT social venues (N=2348, mean age 21.98, SD 1.69) for the baseline evaluation survey. Covariates related to recruitment strategy were age; race or ethnicity; LGBT identity; education; pride event attendance; and alcohol, cigarette, and social media use. Results: Lesbian or gay women (adjusted odds ratio, AOR 1.88, 95% CI 1.54-2.29, P<.001 bisexual men and women ci p=".001)," gender minorities other sexual were more likely than gay to be recruited via social media intercept hispanic or multiracial non-hispanic participants less white media. as age increased odds of recruitment decreased with some college education those a degree reporting past alcohol use who reported past-year pride event attendance well used facebook at least once daily using instagram was faster rate ratio irr="3.31," expensive combined cost but had greater data quality issues larger percentage respondents lost because duplicate low-quality responses compared interviewer misrepresentation conclusions: provided access important lgbt subpopulations diverse sample. methods have are intercept. recruiting hard-to-reach populations audience-tailored strategies enabled one the largest young adult samples suggesting these promise for accessing populations.>
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