OMB Submission Form -- PCOR Awareness Campaign

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0935-0179)

T ITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: AHRQ Publicity Center Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Awareness Campaign Concept Testing

PURPOSE:

To use focus groups to test three (3) platform concepts for an AHRQ Publicity Center Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Awareness Campaign with English-language consumers. A total of 8 focus groups consisting of 9 persons each will be conducted.

This AHRQ patient-centered outcomes research awareness campaign is a multi-media campaign to make research-based comparative health information recognizable for consumers, and motivate consumers to seek out AHRQ consumer resources. Concepts will be tested for comprehension and satisfaction with the intended audiences through the use of focus groups. Later research phases, to be submitted under another OMB clearance request at a later date, will be held for Spanish-language consumers and for health care professionals.

Each of the 3 concepts will have 2 to 3 executions (see below concepts and corresponding executions) that will be tested with the audiences, for a total of 7 prospective advertisements (see Attachment D – Draft Advertisements). With audience feedback, AHRQ can determine if the advertisements are understood by the audience and if they are motivating.

Concepts	Executions
Empowerment	Your doctor knows medicine, but you know you. There are two people you should listen to when considering treatment options. Your doctor. And you. It is possible to listen to both your doctor and your heart.
Reassurance	Sorting through all your treatment options is now a fairly minor procedure. Imagine having a GPS for better health.
Self-Advocacy	Let’s take a cold hard look at your treatment options. Treatment information from scientists. Not advertisers.

Concepts and their executions will be tested in 90 minute focus groups located in both urban (Chicago) and rural (Memphis area) locations. Memphis was chosen as the location of the rural segment of focus groups because of the specific recruitment facility. The facility has access to a database of participants who live in locations that meet the U.S. Census Bureau definition of a rural area (i.e. “rural areas comprise open country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents¹”).

This submission covers data collection as a result of conducting the focus groups and screening participants for inclusion in the focus groups (see Attachment A – Screening Questionnaire and Attachment B – Focus Group Moderator Guide). The screening instrument will be completed by as many as 320 persons to reach the desired focus group sample size. In order to participate, potential participants must be willing to answer questions and meet certain criteria such as:

• Existence of a chronic health condition or care for someone with a chronic health condition

• More than 3 trips to their doctor due to a chronic health condition in the past 12 months

• Ways in which they seek information about health conditions

Prospective participants will then be asked a series of demographic questions such as:

• Age

• Race/Ethnicity

• Level of education

• Relationship status

• Household income

• How they pay for health care

A trained focus group moderator will use a semi-structured moderator guide (Attachment B) to guide discussion. Before entering the focus group room, respondents will read and sign a consent form (Attachment C) and have an opportunity to ask questions.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents will be adults of mixed ages who are either caregivers of those with a chronic condition or patients with a chronic condition.

Chronic conditions included in this study recruitment are: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, asthma, epilepsy, and sickle cell disease.

Caregiver is defined as “anyone (friend/family/etc.) who provides unpaid assistance to someone with a chronic condition (spouse/partner/child). This assistance includes a broad range of activities from providing assistance at home with housekeeping to taking patients to medical appointments to helping them maintain treatment compliance.”

Patient focus groups will be further segmented by level of engagement and type of information seeking as seen in Table 1, below.

Table 1: Focus Group Audience Segmentation (n=8 groups)

Segment	Chicago (urban)	Memphis (rural)
Caregivers	1	1
Engaged patients – Active health information seekers	2	1
Engaged patients – Passive health information seekers	2	1

Engaged patients are those with a chronic condition who have seen their doctor at least 3-4 times in the last 12 months.

Active health information seekers are defined as those patients who have had a recent (within 6 months) health-related question that they researched online/in books or by asking friends/loved ones AND visited their health care provider for a consultation.

Passive health information seekers are defined as those patients who have had a recent (within 6 months) health-related question that they ONLY visited their health care provider about (didn’t do their own research or talk to friends/family about what options they may have for treating their condition.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[X] Focus Group [X] Other: Screening Questionnaire

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:_Doris Lefkowitz_______________________________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ X ] Yes [] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ X ] Yes [] No

AHRQ will offer eligible persons $75 as an incentive to participate in the focus groups. This is currently the standard payment for participation in focus groups lasting up to 90 minutes. In order to take part in these activities, participants will have to find transportation to a centrally-located facility. Although it may be possible to conduct this study while providing a smaller incentive amount to participants, experience suggests that doing so would increase the resources needed for recruiting participants with the desired background, thus increasing the overall project cost to the government.

BURDEN HOURS

Screening Instrument

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Individuals	320	5 minutes	27
Totals	320	5 minutes	27

Focus Groups

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Individuals	72	90 minutes	108
Totals	72	90 minutes	108

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is _$106,000.00_

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

For recruitment of respondents, we will use a professional focus group recruitment firm in each city (Chicago and Memphis). Respondents will come from the facility database of persons who have previously indicated their willingness to participate in a focus group. They will be contacted initially by phone (see Attachment A for the introductory telephone script).

The recruiters will use the screening instrument to further select the appropriate respondents (see Attachment A). This screening instrument will ensure that selected respondents meet study criteria and have not recently participated in a similar focus group.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[X ] Telephone

[ X ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [ X ] Yes [ ] No

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

List of Attachments:

Attachment A – Screening Questionnaire

Attachment B – Focus Group Moderator Guide

Attachment C – Focus Group Consent Form

Attachment D – Draft Advertisements

1 http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/rurality/whatisrural/