TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital and traditional recruitment strategies and participation patterns in the multicenter Healthy Brain Ageing study
AU - Pilco-Janeta, Daniel F.
AU - Mahlknecht, Philipp
AU - De la Cruz-Puebla, Myriam
AU - Horlings, Corinne
AU - Garrido, Alicia
AU - Marques, Taina M.
AU - Soare, Ruxandra
AU - Theyer, Christoph
AU - Leiter, Simon
AU - Ghosh, Soumyabrata
AU - Rege, Kavita
AU - Egner, Iris
AU - Gales, Jón Pol
AU - Schade, Sebastian
AU - Granolles, Andrés
AU - Farfan, Fernanda
AU - Satagopam, Venkata P.
AU - Trenkwalder, Claudia
AU - Mollenhauer, Brit
AU - Krüger, Rejko
AU - Poewe, Werner
AU - Tolosa, Eduardo
AU - Martí, María José
N1 - © 2026 Pilco-Janeta, Mahlknecht, De la Cruz-Puebla, Horlings, Garrido, Marques, Soare, Theyer, Leiter, Ghosh, Rege, Egner, Gales, Schade, Granolles, Farfan, Satagopam, Trenkwalder, Mollenhauer, Krüger, Poewe, Tolosa and Martí.
PY - 2026/8/5
Y1 - 2026/8/5
N2 - BACKGROUND: Early detection of Parkinson's disease (PD) benefits from innovative approaches such as large-scale online surveys on different risk factors in the general population. Effective dissemination is essential, yet little is known about the relative reach and recruitment patterns of different strategies.OBJECTIVE: To describe dissemination strategies used in the multicenter Healthy Brain Ageing (HeBA) study and characterize center-specific recruitment-source, web-access, demographic, and survey-completion patterns across three European centers.METHODS: Data from three centers (Barcelona, Spain; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; and Innsbruck, Austria) aiming at remotely identifying PD risk factors and prodromal symptoms were analyzed. Dissemination strategies were categorized as digital or traditional. Descriptive statistics summarized dissemination strategies, geographic web-access patterns, linguistic adaptation, recruitment sources, and survey completion.RESULTS: At the campaign level, digital dissemination predominated in Barcelona (55.7%) and Luxembourg (53.3%), whereas Innsbruck used a slightly higher proportion of traditional campaigns (52.2%). Participant-reported recruitment sources showed center-specific patterns: digital advertising was the most frequent reported source in Barcelona (62.5%), flyers or invitation letters in Luxembourg (39.3%), and radio or television in Innsbruck (31.4%). Sex-based recruitment differences were significant in Luxembourg (
p = 0.006) and Innsbruck (
p = 0.009), and age-based differences were significant in all centers (Barcelona
p < 0.001, Luxembourg
p < 0.001, Innsbruck
p = 0.001), with 82.0% of participants younger than 65 years. The proportion of participants in the high questionnaire-completion category (≥90% of items answered) was 77.1% in Barcelona, 94.5% in Luxembourg, and 92.8% in Innsbruck.
CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment-related patterns differed across centers and reflected locally implemented combinations of digital and traditional dissemination channels. These findings suggest that recruitment strategies for large-scale online health studies may benefit from considering local media ecosystems, language contexts, and digital participation patterns.
AB - BACKGROUND: Early detection of Parkinson's disease (PD) benefits from innovative approaches such as large-scale online surveys on different risk factors in the general population. Effective dissemination is essential, yet little is known about the relative reach and recruitment patterns of different strategies.OBJECTIVE: To describe dissemination strategies used in the multicenter Healthy Brain Ageing (HeBA) study and characterize center-specific recruitment-source, web-access, demographic, and survey-completion patterns across three European centers.METHODS: Data from three centers (Barcelona, Spain; Luxembourg, Luxembourg; and Innsbruck, Austria) aiming at remotely identifying PD risk factors and prodromal symptoms were analyzed. Dissemination strategies were categorized as digital or traditional. Descriptive statistics summarized dissemination strategies, geographic web-access patterns, linguistic adaptation, recruitment sources, and survey completion.RESULTS: At the campaign level, digital dissemination predominated in Barcelona (55.7%) and Luxembourg (53.3%), whereas Innsbruck used a slightly higher proportion of traditional campaigns (52.2%). Participant-reported recruitment sources showed center-specific patterns: digital advertising was the most frequent reported source in Barcelona (62.5%), flyers or invitation letters in Luxembourg (39.3%), and radio or television in Innsbruck (31.4%). Sex-based recruitment differences were significant in Luxembourg (
p = 0.006) and Innsbruck (
p = 0.009), and age-based differences were significant in all centers (Barcelona
p < 0.001, Luxembourg
p < 0.001, Innsbruck
p = 0.001), with 82.0% of participants younger than 65 years. The proportion of participants in the high questionnaire-completion category (≥90% of items answered) was 77.1% in Barcelona, 94.5% in Luxembourg, and 92.8% in Innsbruck.
CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment-related patterns differed across centers and reflected locally implemented combinations of digital and traditional dissemination channels. These findings suggest that recruitment strategies for large-scale online health studies may benefit from considering local media ecosystems, language contexts, and digital participation patterns.
KW - Parkinson's disease
KW - dissemination strategies
KW - health communication
KW - online health survey
KW - participant recruitment strategies
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105048677520
UR - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42621066/
U2 - 10.3389/fdgth.2026.1862779
DO - 10.3389/fdgth.2026.1862779
M3 - Article
C2 - 42621066
AN - SCOPUS:105048677520
SN - 2673-253X
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Digital Health
JF - Frontiers in Digital Health
M1 - 1862779
ER -