Project Two Focus Group Guide

Attachment D3

Project 2: Exploratory Research of Childbearing Age Women’s Health: Awareness, Knowledge, and Reactions to Existing Educational Materials.

Moderator’s Guide for Written Materials

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 4 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 Reports Clearance Officer; 1600 Clifton Road, MS D-74, Atlanta, GA 30333, ATTN: PRA (0920-xxxx).

I.

I. INTRODUCTION AND ICEBREAKER (10 minutes)

A. 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. This project is being sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also called CDC.

The goal of this project is to better understand the attitudes that women have about vitamins and women’s health. We want to talk to you about your thoughts, feelings, and opinions about some educational materials being used by 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.

B. Procedure

Before we begin, I would like to start with some ground rules for our discussion today:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Our discussion is totally confidential. We will not use your names in any report.

5. 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.

6. 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. If you have health questions, please save them to the end.

7. 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.

8. If you have a cell phone with you, please turn it off or silence the ringer. Thanks.

C. 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 (10 minutes)

Let’s start by talking about the role of vitamins and helping women stay healthy.

9. 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?]

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.

10. 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, etc.]

11. How did you learn about folic acid? From what sources? [Probes: media, doctor, friends or family, advertising]

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 folic acid can prevent serious birth defects such spina bifida and 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.

12. What do you think about this information? [Probes: Is this information new to you? Are you surprised?]

13. After hearing this information, do you think you need to take folic acid? Why or why not?

14. 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?

15. What about friends or family members, have you heard anything from them on this topic? If yes, what did you hear?

16. What, if anything, have you heard in the media about this topic? If yes, what did you hear? Where did you hear something? [Probe: type of media]

IV. EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN (40 minutes)*

[If we assume 10 minutes per product, we can ask about 4 materials.]

As I said before, CDC recommends any woman who could become pregnant, whether she is intending to become pregnant or not, needs to take folic acid every day. I want to show you [#] of educational materials currently being used to educate women about folic acid. CDC is interested in learning whether these materials still work to communicate to women about the benefits of folic acid, or whether they need to be changed. I am going to pass out the first material we are going to look at today. Take a few minutes to look at the material and read what it says and then we will discuss. [repeat the set of questions for each of the materials the group will review]

17. What is the main message of this [brochure]? [Probes: Is this information new to you? Are you surprised?]

18. Would you pick up this [brochure] if you saw it in your doctor’s office or clinic? Why or why not?

19. Do you like the colors in this [brochure]? Do you like the pictures in this [brochure]? [Probe: Layout (tri-fold versus back-and-front card)? Design?] What would you keep? What would you change? [Probe whether they prefer drawings to real photos? Would they want to see actual photos of the neural tube defects?]

20. Was there anything unclear from this [brochure]? [Probe: Is it easy to read and understand? Is the font easy to read? What about the length of it? Is it too long or too short? Too much information/too little information?]

21. Do you think women can do what this [brochure] says? Why or why not?

22. What changes would you make to the [brochure]? What would you definitely not change?

Thanks for your feedback! We just have a few final questions.

V. FINAL COMMENTS AND THANK YOU (5 minutes)

23. Do you have any other questions about these materials or about folic acid that we did not discuss today?

24. 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 feedback and thoughts have been very important, and we appreciate your assistance. Your comments will help CDC and Prevention to promote women’s health. As a reminder, all of your comments today will be kept confidential.

Project 2. Moderator’s Guide, version 1, (Jan. 24, 2011) Page 4 of 4