Treffer: Digital equity in nursing research: A methodological review of nursing studies requiring internet connection.

Background: Shifting external factors, including public health emergencies and changes in funding, can prompt nurse scientists to modify study protocols, adopting internet-required methods for recruitment or data collection. Reliance on these methods could exclude populations, with significant implications for nursing, its science, practice, and policy. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic provides a temporal dividing point to assess the impact on these methodological decisions.
Purpose: This methodological review aimed to (a) quantify the prevalence of internet-required methods in nursing research before and after March 2020, and (b) evaluate their impact on participant inclusivity among digitally disconnected populations.
Methods: We analyzed the participant recruitment and data collection methods of a random sample of 232 peer-reviewed nursing studies published in 2021. We assessed whether the methods required internet access or not, then calculated the proportional difference between studies before and after March 2020.
Discussion: Studies requiring internet access increased from 18.0% pre pandemic to 52.5% post pandemic onset. Internet-required methods also increased for nurses (54.4%), the general population (18.9%), and students (36.3%).
Conclusion: The percentage of internet-required studies in nursing research increased significantly after March 2020. In a shifting research environment, nurse scientists and leaders must proactively address the impact of methodological changes on participant inclusion, ensuring that bridging the digital divide remains a focus of policy and practice.
(Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.