Focus group guide - Testing in Rural Black Men

“HIV Testing Factors Among Rural Black Men (HiTFARM)”

Attachment 1c. Focus Group Guide

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-0840

Expiration Date 01/31/2013

“HIV Testing Factors Among Rural Black Men (HiTFARM)”

Focus Group Guide

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Good afternoon! My name is ______. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us. We will honor your time by making sure that we wrap up the focus group within 90 minutes. We will now have a discussion about HIV testing and disclosure issues among rural African American males. Does anyone mind if we tape record this for our records? We won’t share the tapes with anyone. As researchers we are interested in learning how best to promote HIV testing and disclosure of testing results to sexual partners among rural African American males. We are also interested in learning your opinion about ACASI and the survey items. This evaluation is formative and qualitative. This means that our primary goal is to gather information that will help develop effective HIV testing and disclosure strategies. The information we are collecting is by design descriptive rather than numeric. We have a system for quantifying qualitative information, but for now, we don’t need to be concerned with counting things. We just want your words and your impressions. All information we collect is confidential as to who provided it. For example, we will not disclose who actually participated in this focus group nor will our final report make any reference to specific individuals. We hope this encourages you (if you need encouragement) to speak freely. Are there any questions before we start? We will break our questions into four topical groups, which are:

1. Survey items

2. Audio Computer Assisted Survey Interview (ACASI)

3. HIV Testing Factors

4. HIV Disclosure Factors

Questions related to the survey items

1. What do you think about how the items on the survey are worded?

2. How easy was it to understand the survey items?

3. How hard was it to understand the survey items?

4. Do you have any suggestions about the need to change any survey items?

5. Tell me what you think about the length of each section of the survey?

6. What do you think about the length of the entire survey?

7. What are some suggested strategies to increase participation in the completion of the survey by the rural black males?

Question related to the ACASI

1. What did you think about using a computer device to answer the survey questions?

Questions related to HIV testing experiences

1. What do you think about HIV testing?

2. What encourages black men to get tested for HIV?

3. What prevents black men from getting tested for HIV?

4. How would you develop a program or programs to increase HIV testing among rural black men?

5. How would you develop a program or programs to increase the number of black men who return to get results after receiving an HIV test?

Questions related to Disclosure of HIV test Results

1. How would you develop a program or programs to encourage rural black men who test positive to tell their sex partners?

2. What resources would someone need to operate the programs you just discussed?