Learning About At-Risk Veterans Using

Online Network Surveys#TeamFacebook Carlos Greg Diuk

Akos Lada Alex Peysakhovich

Sean J. Taylor

How can we identify more at-risk veterans to gather more survey data or connect them to help?

Problem 1:At-risk veterans might not survey answer truthfully.

Problem 2: How can we find them to

survey them in the first place?

Combine: 1. targeted recruitment 2. online surveys 3. network survey methods

Key Idea

Facebook Ads TargetingTarget using FB ads both generally and using criteria:

• location = near the 5 largest military bases

• job = employed by the US Army

• interest = US Army

400 responses

in 4 hours

for $240

(all today)

Survey Methodology: “Network Scale-Up Method”

• Ask about self: “have you had symptoms of depression?”

• Ask about friends: “think of a person who you know that has served in the US Armed Forces” and then “has this person had symptoms of depression?”

Age

Possible Biases Uncovered: Friends vs Self Reports

Extensions

• This modern approach improves our ability to survey hidden populations.

• Accessing hidden populations could allow for interventions!

• Survey continuously for longitudinal measurements, detect trends and effects of policy changes.

Appendix

MTurk vs. Facebook

Results: Age

Distribution

Gender

Two Types of Recruitment• Create Facebook page + target using Facebook

ads

• Use crowdsourcing (Amazon Mechanical Turk)