RDT Protocol Summary

ATTACHMENT A: Protocol Summary

CDC Message Testing: Radiation Dose Tool

(Interviews)

Background:

People want to be reassured that radiation or radioactive materials are safe. Radiation experts struggle to address this need. CDC’s Radiation Studies Branch (RSB) created the radiation dose tool to assist with communicating complex topics of risk. The radiation dose tool can help health departments and the public assess their risk and understand how following protective actions can lower their risk of health effects.

Goal

• To explore the effectiveness of the radiation dose tool as communication instrument among the public, public health information officers, and public health planners.

Objectives

• Evaluate the extent to which the radiation dose tool effectively communicates risk.

• Evaluate the extent to which the radiation dose tool is relevant, comprehensible, credible, appealing, and motivational toward achieving desired action.

Target Audience: The target audience for this project are the public, public health information officers and public health planners, who will be responding in their official capacity.

All participants will:

• Be at least 18 years of age

• Be comfortable conversing in English

OMB Approval:

CDC will request OMB approval under the Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback. Questions will focus on the following areas:

• Comprehension

• Initial Impressions

• Believability

• Persuasiveness

• Self-protection motivation/Self efficacy

• Content & Wording

• Appearance

Methodology:

UserInsight proposes to visit 1 community in Atlanta, Georgia and to conduct remote telephone interviews in various locations to collect data with the intent of passing this data to CDC and ORAU for its project regarding the radiation dose tool. Data are to be collected by means of interviews where 36 prospective respondents are to be recruited. ORAU personnel will address any questions the participants have regarding the study before the interviews begin. Interviews are expected to last about 60 minutes.

During the beginning of the interview, the interviewer will provide an overview of the study. Next, the interviewer will show the radiation dose tool on the computer. Remote users will be given a website to visit to view the tool. After the tool is shown, the interviewer will ask questions about the radiation dose tool. The participant will be presented a hypothetical low-risk radiation emergency situation. After the low-risk scenario, participants will be asked questions regarding the message and the radiation dose tool. Once they have completed their discussion about the low-risk scenario, participants will also be presented with a hypothetical high-risk radiation emergency scenario. After the high-risk scenario, participants will be asked questions regarding the message and the radiation dose tool. The interview will conclude with questions about information sources, such as spokespersons and communication channels.

The proposed data collection will have little or no effect on the participants’ privacy. Only comments, quotes, and responses from participants will be noted and used as feedback to inform revisions to the radiation dose tool. ORAU and CDC will only receive a final report from UserInsight.

RSB will not publish the results of the data collection and that the knowledge generated is not generalizable from the selected “sample” out to the universe of public health planner personnel.

Attachment 1b: Burden Hours and Distribution of Respondents

Type of Respondents	Form Name	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondent	Burden per Response (in hr)	Total Burden (in hr)
Public	Eligibility Screener	36	1	10/60	6
	Interview Guide	18	1	60/60	18
Public Information Officers & Public Health Planners	Eligibility Screener	36	1	10/60	6
	Interview Guide	18	1	60/60	18
TOTAL					48

Distribution of Respondents

Audience Segment	Type of Respondent	Atlanta, Georgia	Remote Location	Total Number of Interviews	Total Participants
Public	Eligibility Screener Only Participant	18	18	18	36
	Interview Participant	9	9		18
Public Information Officers & Public Health planners	Eligibility Screener Only Participant	18	18	18	36
	Interview Participant	9	9		18
TOTAL		18 participants	18 participants	36 interviews	72 participants will be screened, of the 72, 36 will meet the criteria to participate in the interview