Research Questions:
What are typical patterns of use (frequency, duration) of X?
How is current and/or past tobacco use related to use of X?
What is the context of use of X? Which environmental (access/availability and setting) and social (norms) factors characterize circumstances of first use of X?
What environmental and social factors characterize current or continued use of X?
What are perceptions and beliefs about the negative health outcomes associated with current use of X?
What language is used to describe X and the use and users of X?
I. Introduction and Ground Rules (5 minutes)
MODERATOR: Welcome and thank you for participating in tonight’s discussion. My name is _________________. Tonight, I am interested in hearing your opinions about tobacco products. You have been asked to participate in tonight’s discussion because you use (or have used) some of the various tobacco products that we are going to discuss tonight.
Before we begin, I want to go over a few ground rules for our discussion tonight, which will last about an hour.
Your participation is voluntary and you have the right to not answer any question or withdraw from the study at any time.
If at any time you are uncomfortable with my questions, you can choose not to answer. Just let me know that you prefer not to answer.
Everything we discuss today will be kept private to the extent allowable by law. Your name and contact information, which only the study staff knows, will not be given to anyone else, and no one will contact you after this discussion is over.
Tonight’s discussion will be audio-recorded. The recordings will help me write the final report and will be kept in a secure location and then destroyed at the end of the study. No names will be mentioned in the final report created from these interviews.
Tonight’s discussion will be videostreamed. Some of my coworkers are viewing our discussion.
They’re watching to make sure that I ask you all of the questions I have for you today. Near the end of our conversation, I’m going to go into the back and see if they have any last minute questions for you.
Most importantly, there are no right or wrong answers. I want to know your opinions. I do not work for the people sponsoring this research and I didn’t write the questions we’re going to look at, so don’t hold back on giving me your honest opinions.
I’m not a medical doctor or an expert on smoking or tobacco, so I can’t answer specific questions. At the end of our discussion, however, I have some materials that you can take with you if you’d like.
Please silence your cell phones.
Do you have any questions before we begin?
Note to the moderator: Italicized text are probes, to use as needed if topics do not come up naturally.
II. Introductions (5 minutes)
III. General Discussion about Tobacco Products
Let’s talk about your experiences with cigarettes and other types of tobacco products. What tobacco products do you currently use or have you used or tried?
(Whiteboard)
IV. OTP – Use and behavior, access, and language
Ok, now let’s talk a little more about your experiences with X [hookah/e-cigarettes/cigars]:
Initiation
How did you first hear about X?
Describe your first experience using X that you can remember:
When was it?
Where were you?
Who were you with?
How did you get X? (Purchase? Friends?)
What made you try it?
What were your reactions to it? (Positive or negative)
What do you remember most about your first experience using X?
Recent History of Use/Reason for Continued Use
Have you continued using X since then? Why or Why not?
Current use setting and frequency
Describe your use of X now: What products do you use? What is the typical situation when you’d be using? How often?
Where are you? What are you doing?
Are you with other people? (Who are you with?)
Access to Product
How do you usually get X?
Do you buy X (them) yourself? If so, where?
How often? How much/many at a time?
Do you try different types? What makes you try something different?
Language/Nomenclature
What words do you use when you talk about X, or talk about using X?
What do you call people who use X regularly? (Is there a name for them?)
Do you consider yourself a {person who uses X regularly}?
What would you consider “regular use” of X? (How much? How often?)
Do you consider people who use X “smokers”? Why or why not?
Additional Tobacco Use/Combined Effect
How is using X related to your use of other tobacco products?
Planned Continued Use
Do you see yourself using X a year from now? What about five years from now? Why or why not?
Is there a point in time when you no longer see yourself using X? When would that be? Why?
IV. OTP – Attitudes and beliefs (risk)
Reason for Use
Why do you think people use X?
Similarity to other tobacco products
How is X like other tobacco products and how is it different?
How is X like cigarettes and how is it different?
What do you know about the ingredients of X?
What about nicotine? What do you know about nicotine in X vs. in other tobacco products?
Knowledge/perception of relative negative health outcomes
How can using X affect your health?
What have you heard about how using X can affect your health?
If nothing: what would you expect to hear?
How does X compare to other tobacco products [or other substances] in terms of the health risks?
How does it compare to cigarettes?
Can someone get addicted to X?
Do you consider yourself addicted to X? Why/Why not?
In terms of addiction, how does it compare with cigarettes?
In terms of addiction, how does it compare with other tobacco products? Other products (like alcohol, drugs)?
Perceived Social Norms
Do your friends use X? What do they think about it? What do they think about you using it?
Tell me about your friends who don’t use X: Why don’t they use it?
Do your parents use X? What do they think of X?
Do any of your other family members use X? Who? What do they think of X?
Where else have you seen or heard about X? (probe: websites [what websites?], TV, magazines, newspaper, etc.)
What do you think about what you’ve seen/heard?
VII. Closing
I would like to thank you for coming here today and participating in this discussion. This research was sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration also known as the FDA. FDA would like to thank you for sharing your opinions as they will be very useful in helping them to understand people’s reactions and thoughts about the tobacco products we have talked about. The FDA wants you to know that there is no safe tobacco product, including the products we talked about today. Here is a pamphlet with information from FDA on how users can quit. Feel free to share this pamphlet with tobacco users you might know.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Johnson, Sarah |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-01 |