DGC 2020-2025 OMB Memo

Memorandum

Date: August 10, 2020

To: Jordan Cohen, OMB Desk Officer

Through: Rachelle Ragland-Greene, Food and Nutrition Service, Information Clearance Officer; Ruth Brown, OCIO Desk Officer

From: Jessica Larson, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP)

USDA – Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services

Re: Under Approved Generic OMB Clearance No. 0584-0523 Request for Approval to Perform Formative Research to Test Messages Developed to Help Communicate 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines Recommendations

The Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) of the USDA Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services is requesting approval for formative research under Approved Generic OMB Clearance No. 0584-0523; Expiration Date: 11/30/2020.

This request is to acquire clearance to conduct formative research in order to develop message concepts to communicate recommendations stemming from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025.

The following information is provided for your review:

1. Title of the Project: CNPP Message Concept Testing
   OMB Control Number and Expiration Date: 0584-0523, November 30, 2022

2. Public Affected by this Project: Individuals and Households. The research will be conducted virtually with American consumers over the ages of 18 and will include both English- and Spanish-speaking individuals. See section 7, Methodology/Research Design for a description of the participants necessary for the research methodology. The definitions of the public affected by this project are identified in the screening instruments (see A-1, B-1, C-1, D-1, and E-1).

3. Number of Respondents:

Our contractors will contact approximately 29,040 individuals and households to recruit:

• 156 individuals participating in 26 total focus groups conducted in English or Spanish.

• 18 of the 156 will participate in a focus group in Spanish (3 total focus groups, with 6 participants each).

• 138 of the 156 will participate in a focus group in English (23 total focus groups, with 6 participants each).

• 4,000 participants completing a formative, qualitative survey¹ in English or Spanish. The survey will not have specific targets for number of completed surveys in English or Spanish.

Of the 29,040 individuals initially contacted to participate in this qualitative research effort, only 1,040 will be contacted to participate in the focus group portion, and only 28,000 will be contacted participate in the survey; no one person will be contacted to participate in both activities.

Among the 1,040 who will be contacted regarding the focus groups, we estimate that 780 (75%) will not complete the screener and thus be ineligible for the focus groups. The remaining 260 (25%) will complete the screener, meet the screening criteria, and thus be eligible for the focus groups. Research will involve recruiting 10 participants per focus group to seat 6 (in order to maximize the likelihood of full participation in each group); thus, we further estimate that among 260 participants who complete the screener and qualify, 104 (40%) will not ultimately participate in the focus groups, whereas 156 (60%) will participate in the focus groups. In sum, out of the 1,040 total contacted to potentially participate in the focus groups, we estimate 156 (15% of the total number of individuals contacted) will participate, and 884 (85%) will not.

Among the 28,000 who will be contacted regarding the qualitative survey, we estimate 24,000 (approximately 86%) will not complete the survey (due to non-response, not meeting screening criteria, not completing the survey), whereas 4,000 (14.3%) will complete the survey.

The estimated numbers of participants for each qualitative exercise are shown in Tables 1 and 2, below.

Table 1: Number of focus group respondents

Instrument	Total Number of Invited Participants	Number of respondents	Proportion of respondents	Number of non-respondents	Proportion of non-respondents
Screener	1,040	260	25%	780	75%
Focus Groups	260	156	60%	104	40%
Total	1,040	156	15%	884	85%

Table 2: Number of survey respondents

Instrument	Total Number of Invited Participants	Number of respondents	Proportion of respondents	Number of non-respondents	Proportion of non-respondents
Base sample	4000	1000	25%	3000	75%
Additional sample (pregnant women)	8000	1000	12.5%	7000	87.5%
Additional sample (moms of up to 2-year-olds)	8000	1000	12.5%	7000	87.5%
Additional sample (caregivers of pregnant women*)	4000	500	12.5%	3500	87.5%
Additional sample (other caregivers of up to 2-year-olds)	4000	500	12.5%	3500	87.5%
Total	28000	4000	14.3%	24000	85.7%

*Caregivers of pregnant women are defined as those who assist pregnant women with activities of daily living, e.g., their spouses, parents, or other family members who provide such assistance.

4. Time Needed Per Response:

Participants will engage in a 2-hour (including approximately 30 minutes spent to log into the online research portal), virtual focus group addressing topics outlined in the research instruments (Attachments A-2, B-2, C-2, D-2, and E-2 for discussion guides).

For the survey, participants will engage in a 20-minute, web-based, qualitative survey, topics outlined in the survey instrument (Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for survey questionnaire and screen shots).

All research documents will include a public burden statement in English and Spanish on all instruments or tools read to, sent to or viewed by respondents (Attachments A-7 and B-7 for focus groups, Attachments A-7a and B-7a for survey).

For the focus groups, such documents include the screening document (Attachments A-1, B-1, C-1, D-1, E-1, and F-1), focus group discussion guides (Attachments A-2, B-2, C-2, D-2, E-2, and F-2 ), messaging concepts and icon to be tested (within Attachments A-2, B-2, C-2, D-2, E-2, and F-2), confidentiality agreement (Attachments A-5 and B-5), focus group confirmation form (Attachments A-3 and B-3), and consent form (Attachments A-4 and B-4).

For the survey, the first screen will reveal the privacy act statement; the second screen, the consent form; and the third screen, the public burden statement (see Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for survey questionnaire and screen shots).

The table summaries of estimated burden hours for the focus groups and survey are presented in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Burden hours for focus groups and survey

*Caregivers of pregnant women are defined as those who assist pregnant women with activities of daily living, e.g., their spouses, parents, or other family members who provide such assistance.

			Respondents					Non-Respondents
Affected Public	Activity	Sample Size	# of Respondents	Frequency of Data Collection	Total annual Responses	Time per Response (hours)**	Total Estimated Burden (hours)	# of Respondents	Frequency of Data Collection	Total annual Responses	Time per Response (hours)	Total Estimated Burden (hours)	Grand Total
Individuals/Households 18+	Survey Base sample	4,000.00	1,000.00	1.00	1,000.00	0.334	334.00	3,000.00	1.00	3,000.00	0.167	501.00	835.00
	Survey Oversample (pregnant women)	8,000.00	1,000.00	1.00	1,000.00	0.334	334.00	7,000.00	1.00	7,000.00	0.167	1,169.00	1,503.00
	Survey Oversample (moms of up to 2 year olds)	8,000.00	1,000.00	1.00	1,000.00	0.334	334.00	7,000.00	1.00	7,000.00	0.167	1,169.00	1,503.00
	Oversample (caregivers of pregnant women)*	4,000.00	500.00	1.00	500.00	0.334	167.00	3,500.00	1.00	3,500.00	0.167	584.50	751.50
	Survey Oversample (caregivers of up to 2 year olds)	4,000.00	500.00	1.00	500.00	0.334	167.00	3,500.00	1.00	3,500.00	0.167	584.50	751.50
	Sub-Total	28,000.00	4,000.00	1.00	4,000.00	0.334	1,336.00	24,000.00	1.00	24,000.00	0.167	4,008.00	5,344.00
	Screening for Focus Groups	1,040.00	260.00	1.00	260.00	0.25	65.00	780.00	1.00	780.00	0.167	130.26	195.26
	Confirmation/follow-up for Focus Group	260.00	260.00	1.00	260.00	0.0835	21.71	0	0	0	0	0	21.71
	Focus Groups* including time to log onto the internet	260.00	156.00	1.00	156.00	2.50	390.00	104.00	1.00	104.00	0.167	17.37	407.37
	Sub-Total	1,040.00	260.00	1.00	676.00	0.705	476.71	780.00	1.00	780.00	0.167	147.63	624.34
	Grand Total	29,040.00	4,260.00	1.00	4,676.00	0.388	1,812.71	24,780.00	1.00	24,780.00	0.168	4,155.63	5,968.34

5. Total Burden Hours and Total Annual Responses on Public: 5,968.34 burden hours‬ (624.34 burden hours for the focus groups and 5,344.00 burden hours for the survey) and 29,456.00 total annual responses (4,676.00 annual responses for the focus groups and 24,780.00 annual responses for the survey).

5. Project Purpose:

Background

Since 1980, USDA, alongside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has published the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, focused on individuals ages two and older. The Dietary Guidelines is written for healthcare providers and policymakers and serves as a handbook for how Americans can live a healthier lifestyle, prevent chronic disease, and reach and maintain a healthy weight. However, as the Dietary Guidelines are targeted towards healthcare professionals rather than consumers, USDA must utilize consumer-friendly communications strategies and messaging concepts to convey this information to the American public.

For the first time in history, USDA and HHS are being mandated by Congress [(e.g., the 2018 Farm Bill; Section 19 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 1787), Section 5 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1754) and Section 11(f) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7U.S.C.2020)] to include guidance for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers. In 2020, the USDA will publish the next iteration of the Dietary Guidelines. This edition will expand to include guidance for pregnant women, as well as infants and toddlers under 2 years of age; as such, USDA must ensure its communications strategies, via particularly its MyPlate messages, as well as federal programs, take these new audiences’ needs into account (Approved Generic OMB Clearance No. 0584-0523; Expiration Date: 11/30/2020). To meet the goals of USDA’s consumer communications among this expanded audience set, USDA must have an in-depth understanding of their mindsets, attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. With this need in mind, this effort has the following research objectives:

• Understand language use and interpretations of various terms among pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers

• Identify knowledge gaps to fill with these audiences

• Explore reactions to existing concepts and messages

• Determine how the USDA can translate the Dietary Guidelines into consumer messages to better engage the new and more traditional audiences

Research Forum

In preparation for this research, USDA Center for Nutrition Policy (CNPP) and Federal Nutrition Service (FNS) contracted with Edge Research to help facilitate a Federal Research Forum; the forum’s goal was to pinpoint key lessons and best practices other government agencies have learned when communicating with the new audiences included in Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025—pregnant women and caregivers of infants and toddlers.

The research forum highlighted the importance of market research before launching a messaging campaign, with particular emphasis placed on language, tone, culture, and socioeconomic class. The forum also revealed the need for a consistent, “surround-sound” approach for dissemination to increase the likelihood of reaching audiences, as well as the perceived credibility and clarity of the information shared. The Forum also noted how partnerships with local organizations, including nonprofits and health centers, can also promote information-sharing. Finally, the Forum uncovered the importance of support systems (e.g., family members, local community organizations, workplaces) as valuable resources for disseminating information to the target audiences.

While the Research Forum identified strategies for reaching the target audiences based on government agencies’ previous work, it also found gaps in agencies’ knowledge that further research should explore:

• There is little information available on communicating health information targeted at pregnant women and caregivers of infants and toddlers, as opposed to infants and toddlers.

• While presentations noted the significance of reaching a mother’s support system, there is a need to better understand how to best communicate with those supporting audiences.

• Understanding how these audiences use technology to receive and share nutrition information is another uncovered area of research.

• As the new Dietary Guidelines introduce recommendations for new audiences, there is also a gap in awareness of how those audiences interpret and understand language associated with nutrition and healthy eating.

Landscape Analysis

Following the Federal Research Forum, Edge began working on an analysis of the communications landscape, i.e., how public health communications campaigns present information and interact with pregnant women and caregivers of infants and toddlers. Conducting a Landscape Analysis is imperative to ensure the next phase of research concentrates on areas not covered in previous research. This review targeted recent, relevant communications efforts targeted to the new Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 target audiences; efforts included government nutrition and health campaigns, non-government and nonprofit nutrition campaigns, and academic literature analyzing their effectiveness.

The landscape analysis revealed the following key themes:

• Several non-government sites share some nutrition information relevant to pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers, but none focus solely on nutrition recommendations. Information related to mothers’ self-care is also very limited.

• As the Research Forum suggested, a “surround sound” approach can increase campaigns’ impact, especially when paired with “opt-in” communications.

• There is a divide between how government and non-government campaigns disseminate materials and messages: government campaigns tend to provide text-heavy printable PDFs and booklets, while non-government campaigns build more robust websites and online presences.

Language and tone vary across the campaigns; it will be important in follow-up research to understand which words, phrases, concepts these audiences find most relevant and authentic.

Current Goal: Focus Group and Survey Research

With a strong knowledge of previous research conducted, USDA can turn to research to inform Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 recommendations and communications strategy. Specifically, the next step in the process is formative, qualitative research consisting of focus groups and a qualitative survey. USDA and HHS have a clear plan to develop the Dietary Guidelines recommendations and determine the most crucial information to share with consumers, but without a better understanding of how consumers might hear or interpret the message concepts, it may fall on deaf ears. Consumer-facing research will provide the remaining intelligence needed to increase the likelihood of success. This research among consumers (particularly the new target audiences covered by the Dietary Guidelines recommendations, i.e., pregnant women, infants, and toddlers under 2 years of age) will be invaluable in developing messaging that is helpful, interesting, and relevant.

Focus groups will provide insight into the development of effective strategies and messaging concepts to inform and motivate Americans to eat healthier in the context of the Dietary Guidelines. The qualitative survey will serve as an extension of the focus groups in order to refine messaging concepts and collect feedback from more individuals across the audiences of focus.

The approval of this information collection is necessary for CNPP to meet the following objectives:

• Identify what message concepts can best encourage consumers to think about nutrition decisions.

• Identify how best to communicate new message concepts to encourage the adoption of healthy food and beverage consumption decisions.

• Examine how best to craft and disseminate new message concepts and recommendations to audiences the Dietary Guidelines has not previously attempted to reach.

7. Methodology/Research Design

Focus Groups

The focus groups target three, distinct sample populations: pregnant women, non-pregnant caregivers of newborns and infants up to two years of age, and remaining consumer audiences (e.g., empty nesters, adults who have no children, and adults who have children ages 2-18 living in their household). The former two audiences reflect the new recommendations and outreach the Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 will direct towards these groups; while research among the remaining consumer audiences offers the opportunity to test communications concepts and potentially new/updated Dietary Guidelines recommendations among the general American consumer audience.

The research consists of 26 focus groups. Due to public health restrictions related to COVID-19, these focus groups will be conducted virtually among participants across four states (Florida, Maryland, Texas, and Washington). These locations were chosen to ensure a diverse range of geographic location, ethnic/racial background, and culture, including language, among the target population. Each group will consist of up to 6 participants and will be conducted in English or Spanish.

Participants will be recruited to maximize diversity of SNAP eligibility, age, gender (if applicable), race/ethnicity (in mixed race/ethnicity groups), healthy weight versus overweight (defined by BMI as calculated by self-reported heights and weights), children in household (if applicable), and age of child (if applicable). Additionally, for the pregnant and non-pregnant caregiver (of infants and toddlers) audiences, three focus groups will be conducted solely among Spanish speakers and three among African Americans.

The specific breakdown of the focus groups is shown in Tables 5-7, below.

Tables 5-7. Focus Group Distribution

Pregnant Women*
Grp #	Other Child(ren)	Income	Gender	Race/Ethnicity
1	1st-time moms	SNAP-Eligible	Female	Mixed
2	Moms with children	SNAP-Eligible	Female	Mixed
3	1st-time moms	Higher Income	Female	Mixed
4	Moms with children	Higher Income	Female	Mixed
5	1st-time moms	SNAP-Eligible	Female	Spanish-speaking
6	Moms with children	Higher Income	Female	African American

(Non-pregnant) B-24 Caregiver Audience – Caregivers of Newborns and Infants*
Grp #	BMI	Age of Child	Income	Gender	Breastfeeding	Race/Ethnicity
1	Mixed	0 to < 6 mos.	SNAP-Eligible	Female	Yes	Mixed
2	Mixed	6 to < 12 mos.	Higher Income	Mixed	No	Mixed
3	Healthy weight	12-24 mos.	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	No	Mixed
4	Mixed	0 to < 6 mos.	Higher Income	Female	Yes	Mixed
5	Mixed	6 to < 12 mos.	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	No	African American
6	Overweight	12-24 mos.	Higher Income	Mixed	No	Mixed
7	Mixed	0 to < 6 mos.	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	No	Spanish-speaking
8	Mixed	6 to < 12 mos.	Higher Income	Mixed	Mixed	Mixed
9	Mixed	6 to < 12 mos.	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	No	Spanish-speaking
10	Overweight	12-24 mos.	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	No	African American

*All Pregnant groups and groups 2, 4 of the Caregiver (of Newborns and Infants) groups will be conducted among Gen Y.

Remaining Consumer Audiences
Grp #	Group Type	Income	Gender	BMI	Race/Ethnicity
1	Older Americans (65+)	Higher Income	Mixed	Overweight	Mixed
2	Older Americans (65+)	Higher Income	Mixed	Healthy weight	Mixed
3	Older Americans (65+)	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	Overweight	Mixed
4	Older Americans (65+)	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	Healthy weight	Mixed
5	No kids in HH (Gen X)	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	Overweight	Mixed
6	Child 3-18 in HH (Gen X)	Higher Income	Mixed	Overweight	Mixed
7	No kids in HH (Gen X)	Higher Income	Mixed	Healthy weight	Mixed
8	Child 3-18 in HH (Gen X)	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	Healthy weight	Mixed
9	No kids in HH (Gen Y)	Higher Income	Mixed	Healthy weight	Mixed
10	Child 3-18 in HH (Gen Y)	SNAP-Eligible	Mixed	Overweight	Mixed

The following definitions apply for this focus group distribution:

• “Higher income” signifies those whose household income is above the threshold to be considered eligible for SNAP in their state.

• “Healthy weight” and “overweight” are determined by BMI, which will be calculated using respondents’ reported height and weight.

• “Gen X” refers to respondents who were born between 1965-1980; “Gen Y”, or Millennials, refers to respondents who were born between 1981-1996.

Recruitment

Individuals will be identified for potential participation utilizing a screener document (Attachments A-1, B-1, C-1, D-1, and E-1) to identify the demographics of the potential participants. To obtain potential respondents from each targeted research location, a locally-based professional recruiter will be used to identify potential participants using a database and will then follow up with the screener online. The use of the database does not impose additional burden on the respondents. Given the vast target audiences USDA must consider with the Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025, the focus group recruitment is designed to obtain a mix of demographics, to the extent possible.

Confirmation

After completing the screener, participants who qualify will be sent a focus group confirmation form (Attachments A-3 and B-3) that outlines the purpose of the research, the fact that it is voluntary research, privacy act information (see section 8: Confidentiality), a public burden statement (see section 4: Time Needed per Response), the date and time of the virtual focus group, incentive information, and log-in instructions.

Discussion Areas

The focus groups will include the following discussion areas:

Pregnant Women groups (Attachments A-2 and B-2 for discussion guide):

• Food decision-making for parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers

• Food decision-making for 0-24-month-old children

• Nutrition trajectory (i.e., nutritional awareness and behaviors throughout life stages)

• Message testing

• Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 message drill-down and icon review

• Reactions to nutrition-related words and phrases

Non-pregnant B-24 Caregiver Audience (caregivers of infants and toddlers) groups (Attachments C-2 and D-2 for discussion guide):

• Food decision-making for parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers

• Food decision-making for 0-24-month-old children

• Nutrition trajectory (i.e., nutritional awareness and behaviors throughout life stages)

• Message testing

• Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 message drill-down and icon review

• Reactions to nutrition-related words and phrases

Remaining Consumer Audiences groups (Attachment E-2 for discussion guide):

• Food decision-making in short-run and over time

• Message testing

• Dietary Guidelines 2020-2025 message drill-down and icon review

• Reactions to nutrition-related words and phrases

Incentives

CNPP/USDA will provide an incentive of a $90 gift card for participating in the focus groups. Incentives have been considered a standard practice in conducting qualitative research (see, for instance, the CDC General Guidelines for Focus Groups), helping to maximize participation, manage recruitment hours, and reduce no-show rates. For 2-hour focus groups (including 30 minutes for logging into the virtual, online platform), the incentive can be used to offset any child-care cost for harder-to-reach groups that, in previous research, have received incentives as high as $40 for 1-hour focus groups. Additionally, as participants will use either smartphones, tablets, or laptops to log in and participate in the focus groups, the incentive can be used to offset any expenses incurred by using these devices. Finally, incentives are more likely to secure the participation of individuals meeting the screening requirements, making recruitment more effective and thus saving government money in recruitment costs.

Qualitative Survey

Sampling

Participants will be recruited randomly from an existing online panel. Five samples will be used:

• Base sample among adults 18 years of age or older

• Additional sample among pregnant women

• Additional sample of mothers of newborns and infants up to 2 years old

• Additional sample of caregivers of pregnant women

• Additional sample of caregivers of newborns and infants up to 2 years old

The primary sampling criteria is the age of participants (over 18). Each sample will be balanced on age, geographic region, gender, income, ethnicity and race.

Analysis will be qualitative in nature, although information about results may include documentation of methodology and response rates. There will be no specific quantitative analysis of data nor conclusions with any inferences on consumers nationally. The information collected will not be nationally representative of consumers nor statistically valid.

Recruitment

Invitations to participate in the survey (see Attachments A-9 and B-9) will be sent, by email, only to participants who fit the study screening criteria (see Screening Criteria, below) as based on the panel member characteristics kept by the panel providers. We should note that pre-screening of the participants is done without actual contact with the respondents using existing electronic records and therefore does not impose additional burden on the respondents.

Screening Criteria

After participants consent to the study (see Section 8: Confidentiality), a brief screener will be administered. Screening questions refer to the first several questions in the survey, signified by the “Screening Questions” header in the full survey questionnaire (see Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for full survey questionnaire and screen shots). In addition to determining the sample of each respondent, the screening questions will:

• Confirm whether participants prefer to take the survey in English or Spanish; their selection will determine the language that appears in the rest of the survey.

• Confirm age criteria for study participation and screen out those under 18 years of age.

• Screen out participants who work in nutrition-related fields (e.g., health care providers, dietitians, those working in the wellness industry) and participants who work in marketing, advertising, or market research.

Survey Areas

After completing the screener, participants who qualify will proceed to the main survey in the appropriate language (see Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for full survey questionnaire and screen shots that include screening questions). The survey will contain several modules described below:

Familiarity with and understanding of MyPlate

The survey will measure the participants’ familiarity with MyPlate and recognition of the MyPlate logo. Those familiar with MyPlate will be asked their understanding of the concepts conveyed by MyPlate.

Umbrella Message testing

The survey will test three umbrella messages encouraging healthier eating behavior consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines. The messages will be presented in random order. Subsequent tasks and measures will be identical for the messages.

Highlighter Tool

Depending on screener answers, participants will be presented with one of two paragraphs regarding healthy eating. They will be asked to engage in a “highlighting task”. Using an electronic “highlighter,” participants will be asked to mark words or phrases in the message that they liked. Once the “highlighting task” is complete, participants will receive a battery of questions about their assessment of the message and the extent to which the message encouraged them to engage in healthier eating behaviors and additional information seeking about nutrition (see Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for full survey questionnaire and screen shots that include paragraphs used for highlighting task, as well as battery of questions).

Message Platform Test

Depending on screener answers, participants will receive a battery of questions testing the helpfulness of a series of messages communicating recommendations consistent with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines. The messages will be presented in random order (see Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for full survey questionnaire and screen shots that include battery of questions and series of messages).

Icon Test

Graphic representation of the idea of a dietary pattern will be presented to participants. A brief assessment of the participants’ reactions to each graphic will be administered after each presentation (see Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for full survey questionnaire and screen shots that include icons tested).

Psychographics

• The module will administer the measures of attitudes and behaviors that may impact receptivity to CNPP messages, including:

• Participant concerns with healthier eating

• Assessment of their own eating pattern

• Self-efficacy to search out and consume information regarding healthier eating behaviors

Demographics

The final module will collect demographic measures including income, educational attainment, and household size. In addition, participants will be asked about their role in the household regarding food purchasing decisions. Participants’ height and weight information will also be collected in order to calculate BMI. This information will aid in analyzing how BMI relates to measures tested in the survey, including familiarity with and understanding of MyPlate, highlighter tool results, the message platform test, the icon test, and psychographics.

Incentives

It is customary for panel providers to offer points for participation in the surveys. Accumulated points over many surveys can typically be traded for small monetary gifts, merchandise, or entry into a sweepstakes. Point systems are part of the numerous other panel management activities conducted by the panel providers to keep panelists engaged. However, the price of the sample mostly depends on incidence rates and therefore does directly correlate to the panel management cost incurred by the sample provider. Thus, when using an online sample, the Federal government does not directly provide incentives to the participants; rather, the Federal government receives access to the sample that may or may not be incentivized by the panel provider.

8. Confidentiality:

CNPP and contractors will follow procedures for maintaining safeguards consistent with the Privacy Act during all stages of data collection. A system of record notice (SORN) titled USDA/FNS-8 FNS Studies and Reports in the Federal Register on April 25, 1991 Volume 56, Number 80, and is located on pages 17251-17252 discusses the terms of protections that will be provided to respondents.

Using data collection instruments in Attachments A-4, B-4, A-6, B-6, A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10, all participants will receive a privacy statement (Attachments A-6 and B-6 for focus groups; Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for survey) and consent form (Attachments A-4 and B-4 for focus groups; Attachments A-8, B-8, A-10, and B-10 for survey). Any audio or video recording used to track detailed responses from focus group participants will be destroyed 6 months after results are reported. The privacy statement will inform the participants that all opinions they provide will not be shared with anyone outside this study, except as otherwise required by law, and none of their responses will be associated with personally identifiable information (PII). Participants will also be informed that findings will be presented as a summary.

The OMB public burden statement for this data collection will be displayed prior to participation in the focus groups, or upon participants’ entry into the survey, respectively. Since the OMB public burden statement will be a part of the research instrument (focus groups) or survey instrument (survey), no additional burden hours are associated with it.

Furthermore, the consent forms (Attachment A-4) will be distributed prior to participation in the focus groups and will be located on the first page of the online survey; in both instances, participants will be required to submit electronic acknowledgement (including via email) prior to participation in the focus groups, or electronic acknowledgement (by clicking a button in the survey) prior to proceeding to the rest of the survey, respectively.

Additional steps employed to notify the respondents about their privacy are as follows:

As part of the conditions of employment, all trained staff working on the project have signed a confidentiality agreement (Attachment A-5) prohibiting them from discussing any information about the research studies they work on with anyone not involved with the project.

8. Federal Costs: $693,246: The estimated total cost to the Federal government is $693,246 ($687,440 contract costs + $4,520 for consumer communications project lead and two support staff x 0.33 to account for fully loaded wages).

8. Research Tools/Instruments:

Pregnant Groups (English)	Pregnant Groups (Spanish)
A-1 Screener (English)	B-1 Screener (Spanish)
A-2 Discussion Guide (English)	B-2 Discussion Guide (Spanish)
A-3 Confirmation Form (English)	B-3 Confirmation Form (Spanish)
A-4 Consent Form (English)	B-4 Consent Form (Spanish)
A-5 Confidentiality Agreement (English)	B-5 Confidentiality Agreement (Spanish)
A-6 Privacy Act Statement (English)	B-6 Privacy Act Statement (Spanish)
A-7 Focus Group Public Burden Statement (English) A-7a Survey Public Burden Statement (English)	B-7 Focus Group Public Burden Statement (Spanish) B-7a Focus Group Public Burden Statement (Spanish)
A-8 Survey Questionnaire (English)	B-8 Survey Questionnaire (Spanish)
A-9 Survey Invitation (English) A-10 Survey Screen Shots (English)	B-9 Survey Invitation (Spanish) B-10 Survey Screen Shots (Spanish)
A-3 through A7a, and B-3 through B-7a, will apply across English and Spanish focus groups, respectively.

B-24 Caregiver Audience Groups (English)	B-24 Caregiver Audience Groups (Spanish)
C-1 Screener (English)	D-1 Screener (Spanish)
C-2 Discussion Guide (English)	D-2 Discussion Guide (Spanish)

Caregiver Audiences Groups refer to caregivers of infants and toddlers up to 2 years of age.

Remaining Audiences Groups (English)

E-1 Screener (English)

E-2 Discussion Guide (English)

E-3 Burden Estimates Excel Chart (English)

1 Survey analysis will be qualitative in nature, although information about results may include documentation of methodology and response rates. There will be no specific quantitative analysis of data nor will the research draw conclusions with any inferences on consumers nationally. The information collected will not be nationally-representative of consumers nor statically valid.

4