Online Recruitment of Young Adults with Cancer in the Survivorship Period: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Young adults (YAs), aged 18–39 years, with cancer remain underrepresented in oncology research despite increased incidence and survivorship. Online recruitment-through social media and/or the internet-represents a promising, effective, and low-cost strategy to improve the recruitment of these often hard-to-reach YAs. Although some literature exists on online recruitment of YAs with cancer, a more thorough and up-to-date review could provide better insights into the characteristics of these online recruitment strategies and the profile of YAs recruited through them. This scoping review aims to map the strategies used for online recruitment, through social media and/or the internet, of YAs with cancer in the survivorship period, as well as the characteristics of the individuals recruited. Methods and Analysis: A scoping review is currently being conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology (Peters et al., 2020). The literature search will be carried out in five databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, PUBMED, EMBASE, PsycINFO). Only articles published in English or French since 2020 will be included. The selection and data extraction processes will be conducted independently by two reviewers following pilot testing. A descriptive narrative synthesis will be used to report the findings.