Characteristics of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Sample Recruited Using Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Abstract

III.

Assessing the Longer‐Term Effects of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury on Self‐Reported Driving Ability

“…Data collected through MTurk from clinical samples have been of uniformly high quality and reflect a diverse population [30]. Data analyzed for the present study were part of a larger study examining the utility of MTurk as a recruitment tool for participants with a history of mTBI [31]. Data related to demographics, injury characteristics, psychological history, and current symptoms presented in the tables in this article appeared in multiple tables in a previous article, which compared 4 groups on these variables [31]; we aggregated the relevant data for the present article and included driving data in a table.…”

“…Data analyzed for the present study were part of a larger study examining the utility of MTurk as a recruitment tool for participants with a history of mTBI [31]. Data related to demographics, injury characteristics, psychological history, and current symptoms presented in the tables in this article appeared in multiple tables in a previous article, which compared 4 groups on these variables [31]; we aggregated the relevant data for the present article and included driving data in a table. In total, 2,088 individuals completed a health screener on MTurk for possible study participation, of which 389 were included in analyses for the present study.…”

“…In addition, only individuals with internet access and knowledge of MTurk could enroll in the study. However, past work suggests that samples recruited online are largely similar to those identified by more traditional methods, such as in an emergency department [30,31].…”

Re: Characteristics of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Sample Recruited Using Amazon's Mechanical Turk

“…As Mr Bernstein and Dr Calamia note in their recent article, “Characteristics of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Sample Recruited Using Amazon's Mechanical Turk,” Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an increasingly popular platform for recruiting research participants in the behavioral and health sciences [1]. We agree that MTurk provides efficient and low‐cost access to high‐quality data.…”

Reply

“…We thank Drs Shapiro and Chandler for their helpful comments [1] on our manuscript [2] and their larger discussion of the potential pitfalls when using MTurk to assess clinical populations. In the space below, as a response to some of the concerns noted, we provide additional details not included in our manuscript on a few aspects of our study.…”