Diverse Recruitment Strategies Are Needed to Reduce Digital Divide: Results from a Workshop Addressing Digital Divide and Effects of Pandemic Restrictions

Abstract

Recruitment is a bottleneck for research-especially digital health studies. Studies often focus on those who are easy to reach or already engaged in their health, leaving those who are uninterested or un-engaged, as 'un-reached'. This contributes to the 'digital divide'. COVID-19 restrictions made recruitment more difficult. During a virtual workshop of our peers, we discussed recruitment of un-reached groups for digital health studies, especially during COVID-times. All agreed; we need to go where the un-reached are by collaborating with community-based services and organizations.