Attachment C5
Project 1: Exploratory Research of Hispanic Women’s Folic Acid Awareness, Knowledge, and Behavior among Two Audience Segments Who Are Mexican or Central American Non-Pregnant Women Who Consume Corn Masa Flour Products.
Moderator’s Guide
Public reporting burden for
this collection of information is estimated to average 4.5 minutes
per response, including the time for reviewing instructions,
searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data
needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.
An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a
currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this
burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of
information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:
CDC/ATSDR Information Clearance Officer; 1600 Clifton Road, MS D-74,
Atlanta, GA 30333, ATTN: PRA (0920-xxxx).
I.
I. INTRODUCTION AND ICEBREAKER (10 minutes)
Introduction and purpose
Thank you for coming. Your presence and participation today are very important. My name is ____________ and I will be moderating today’s discussion.
The goal of this project is to better understand the attitudes that Hispanic women have about health issues. We want to talk to you about your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. This project is being sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also called CDC.
The feedback you will give us today is information we could not get anywhere else. Thank you for your willingness to come and give us your opinions.
Procedure
Before we begin, I would like to start with some ground rules for our discussion today:
There are no right or wrong answers. Please be completely honest. We’re as interested in learning what you don’t like as we are in learning what you do like.
Everyone’s participation is important. Part of my job as moderator is to make sure we get a chance to hear from everyone, so, at times, I may call on you, or ask you to shorten your remarks so someone else has the chance to speak.
We want this to be a group discussion, so you don’t need to wait for me to call on you to speak, and please feel free to respond directly to other people’s thoughts and ideas.
Our discussion is totally confidential. We will not use your names in any report.
Our discussion today is being tape recorded. These recordings allow us to write a more complete report, and to make sure we accurately reflect your opinions. However, please only speak one at a time, so that the tape recorder can pick up all your comments. We will destroy all recordings after we are done writing our report.
I am working with some other people on this project, and they will be observing our conversation from the other side of this mirror. They are taking notes and may ask a follow up question at the end. At the end of our discussion, someone will be available to answer your questions.
As moderator, my job is to keep the discussion focused on the subject. If I see that we are getting off the topic, I will bring us back to the topic so we can finish on time.
If you have a cell phone with you, please turn it off or silence the ringer. Thanks.
Introductions
Before we begin, I would like each of you to take a few moments to introduce yourself. Please tell the group:
Your first name
How long you have lived in this area
II. DIET AND VITAMINS (25 minutes)
Health
Let’s start by talking about eating healthy.
How do you decide what foods you eat? [Probe: taste, other family members like it, is nutritious, brand, cost, ease (ready to eat)]
Are there any foods that you think are especially important for women to eat? Which ones? Why?
Do you read the labels on the food you eat? What information on the food label do you look at? What information on the label is important to you?
Are there any vitamins that you think are especially important for women? Which ones? Why are they important? [Probe: What vitamins, if any, are important for pregnant women? Why? What about when a woman is planning a pregnancy? Why?]
Do you think Hispanic women need certain vitamins more or less than non-Hispanic women? Why or why not? Which vitamins?
Great! This has been really helpful.
III. FOLIC ACID (25 minutes)
I would like to talk [MORE] about a vitamin called folic acid. It is also sometimes called Vitamin B9 or folate.
What, if anything, have you heard about folic acid? Anything else? [Probes: Listen for relationship to birth defects, pregnancy, foods, prenatal vitamins, side effects, fortification of food]
How did you learn about folic acid? From what sources? [Probes: media, doctor, friends or family, advertising]
Who do you think needs folic acid? [Probe: Women? Men? Children? Pregnant women?] How can you get folic acid?
I want to tell you more about folic acid. Folic acid is a B vitamin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (called CDC) recommends that all women who could possibly become pregnant take folic acid every day, whether they are currently planning to have a baby or not. This is because the vitamin folic acid can prevent serious birth defects of the spine such as spina bifida and, of the brain, such as anencephaly, in babies. Women need to start taking folic acid before they are pregnant to reduce these risks. These birth defects happen before most women even know they are pregnant. Because many pregnancies are unplanned, CDC recommends that all women of childbearing age get enough folic acid every day.
What do you think about this information? [Probes: Is this information new? Are you surprised?]
Do you think you need to take folic acid? Why or why not?
Hispanic women have higher rates of babies born with these birth defects than non-Hispanic women. What do you think about this information? [Probes: Is this information new? Are you surprised? Do you believe this is true?]
Has your doctor or another healthcare provider ever talked to you about the connection between folic acid and healthy babies? [If yes, what did you hear?]
What about friends or family members, have you heard anything from them on this topic? [If yes, what did you hear?]
What, if anything, have you heard in the media about this topic? Where did you hear about this? [Probe: radio, television, internet]
IV. PRODUCT FORTIFICATION AND LABELING (25 minutes)
What have you heard about fortified foods?
[NOTE: READ SLOWLY] There are different ways to get enough of the vitamin folic acid. Taking a multivitamin every day is one way to do this. Another way to do this is by eating the appropriate amounts of foods that have been fortified with the vitamin folic acid. When a food is fortified with folic acid, it means that folic acid has been added . In the United States, pasta, breakfast cereals, and breads are some examples of foods that have been fortified with folic acid. In other countries, such as Mexico and Central America, foods such as corn masa flour, which is used to make corn tortillas, are also fortified with folic acid.
Some of CDC’s partners are working together to submit a petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would allow for manufacturers of corn masa flour in the United States to fortify their products with the vitamin folic acid. If this happens, foods such as corn masa flour, corn tortillas, corn nacho chips, and other products made with corn masa flour would contain some folic acid.
Have you heard or read anything about this topic? If yes, what have you heard or read about this topic? Who did you hear it from? Or where did you read it? [Probe: newspaper, radio, television, website, family members or friends.]
What do you think about this information? Do you think this a good idea? A bad idea? Why?
Would you buy a corn masa flour product that was fortified with folic acid? Why or why not?
If you would buy a fortified product, would you like to see the words “fortified with the vitamin folic acid” on the packaging?
What would you like to see on the packaging that would go on a corn masa flour product that would let the buyer know that it was fortified with folic acid?
V. FINAL COMMENTS AND THANK YOU (5 minutes)
Your feedback and thoughts have been very important, and we appreciate your assistance.
Finally, do you have any other questions or is there anything else you would like to say?
[____ ] is here to give you additional information about folic acid and to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for coming! Your comments will help CDC promote Hispanic women’s health. As a reminder, all of your comments today will be kept confidential.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Dorthina G Grant |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-01 |