Attachment H3 - Data Collection (Interviewer Training Manual)

Data Collection

3

The data collection for the NFS Field Test has many major components. Steps 1-7 will be conducted as part of the initial visit; steps 8-9 will take place during the household’s 7-day study week; and step 10 will occur during the final visit. It is important to understand each step that is involved:

1. An advance letter and study FAQs will be mailed to the household before the field interviewer’s visit;

2. An interviewer observation form will be completed by the field interviewer before the interviewer’s first contact with the household to gather physical observations of the sampled household and surrounding environment;

3. An in-person screener will be conducted to determine a sample household’s eligibility for the study;

4. Household consent will be obtained from the primary respondent (PR);

5. The initial interview will be conducted with the primary respondent to gather information on household members, household participation in nutrition and community programs, and regular household food acquisition;

6. Parental consent will be obtained for any minors (between the ages of 11 and 17) who will be participating in the Food Log on their own behalf;

7. The primary respondent and household members will participate in a FoodLogger Training;

8. Households will complete the FoodLogger for a 7-day study week;

9. All household members age 16 and older will complete the income questionnaire and all household members will complete the profile questionnaire; and,

10. The debriefing interview will be completed with the primary respondent at the end of the week.

Figure 1-1 in Chapter 1 presents an overview of the NFS Field Test data collection activities.

3.1 Overview of NFS Field Test Interviews

The NFS Field Test Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) questionnaire is administered in three parts: a screener, initial interview, and debriefing interview. The IMS, or Interviewer Management System, will allow you to navigate through the different steps with ease. The IMS will guide you through the different phases of the study and will only allow you to launch interviews or forms that each case is ready to complete. You will always be able to tell the current state of each case by looking at the case details in the IMS. We will go over the IMS in more detail in Chapter 6.

The screener is completed first with any adult in the household to determine whether the household is eligible for the study. If that household qualifies, you will be notified immediately at the end of the screener. If the household is eligible, the screener respondent will give consent for the household to participate in the NFS by signing a household consent form.

The first question in the initial interview will help you determine who the primary respondent (PR) is for the household. The PR is defined as the person who does the most food shopping and/or meal preparation for the household. The initial interview must be completed by the PR in each household. If the screener respondent is not the PR, you will need to find out if and when the PR is available to complete the initial interview. If food shopping is shared equally by more than one person and one of the persons is the screener respondent, select the screener respondent as the PR. If the screener respondent is neither of the persons, select the food shopper who is available to do the interview earliest.

Upon completion of the initial interview, the PR and eligible household members who are available will then be trained to use the Food Log using online orientation videos available on the NFS website. Ideally, the screener, initial interview, and training will be completed during a single initial visit to the household; however, this may not be possible due to time constraints or the PR’s availability. It is not required that everything is done at once. Be flexible and work around the household’s schedule.

Once the PR is trained, eligible household members will be expected to complete the 7-day FoodLogger and an income and profile questionnaire. A week later, you will return to the household to conduct the debriefing interview with the PR.

A checklist of all the activities that will need to be completed for a single household during the initial visit and the final visit will be provided at training. Also included is a list of your equipment and participant equipment. Remember to completely charge all the equipment before your visit.

In the sections that follow, we will talk about each of the data collection activities, however, you will have an opportunity to learn more about the questions asked in each instrument in more detail during classroom training.

3.2 Advance Materials

An advance letter is mailed to the sampled household before the field interviewer makes the initial visit. The letter will explain who sponsors the study, the purpose of the study, and what participation entails. A study FAQs will accompany the letter and will provide more detailed study information in commonly asked questions and answers format. For more details on these materials, see Chapter 2 Contacting Procedures.

3.3 Interviewer Observation Form

Upon arrival for the initial visit, and before making contact with a household, you will complete an Interviewer Observation Form (see Exhibit 2-2 in Chapter 2). This short form is designed to capture observed information about the physical environment surrounding the household—such as the type of house, the perceived cleanliness, and an estimate of the number of inhabitants. This form must be completed before you speak with any household members, ideally while you are still in your car. This form is one of the few instruments that can be accessed through mFOS on your iPhone. You will be able to launch and complete the form on your iPhone making accessing and completing this form more convenient. If someone from the household approaches you before you have completed the form, stop and leave the rest of the form incomplete. The purpose of this form is to collect observed information about the household before knowing anything about the household. Therefore, it is important that you do not complete the form after making contact with the household. If you are unable to complete it before making contact, you can leave the form incomplete. A completed observation form should ALWAYS be followed up with an attempt to contact the household. It should never be completed without a contact attempt. Below are some tips for completing the form.

3.3.1 Tips for Completing the Interviewer Observation Form

In general, these questions are meant to be completed by the first interviewer at the first visit only through observation (before any in-person contact is made). Please make your best judgments and do NOT update the entry after in-person contacts. Respond to the following questions based on your observation for each dwelling unit.

1. DU Type: Check the one that best describes the dwelling unit (DU). If the unit is not a DU, like a business, school, or church, specify the type of the unit.

2. Neighborhood Type: Predict the income level of the neighborhood and check the one that best describes the neighborhood. When a segment seems to have different levels of income, choose the one that best describes the neighborhood or this particular home. The size of the houses, the condition of the houses, the condition of the surroundings (streets, community areas, etc.), the type and condition of cars parked on the street, and so on in the neighborhood may be useful to look at.

3. Indication of a child or children: Please look for evidence indicating the presence of children such as:

• baby strollers, outdoor toys/shoes, bikes, swing sets, trampolines, basketball hoop (porch, yard, or driveway);

• car seats, booster seats or toys in the backseat of cars (driveway);

• baby blankets, toys, furniture, child equipment (open garage or inside the house through window);

• boxes for baby wipes or diapers, candy wrappers, stickers/crayons/miscellaneous kids decorations; and

• sounds of children.

4. Best guess of the number of residents: Predict the number of people living in the dwelling unit and check the one based on your prediction. The size of the house and the number of cars parked in the driveway may be helpful to make a judgment. Also, take into consideration whether there is any indication of a child or children.

5. DU condition: This item is asking about the external conditions of the dwelling unit and its surroundings. Please choose any that applies to the dwelling unit.

6. Other DU condition description: Please write any notes that have not been covered by the previous questions.

3.4 Screener Interview Overview

Households are selected randomly using an address-based sampling method. At the start of the study, Westat will not know anything about sampled households except for the address. In order to study a representative sample of American households, Westat is required to survey a certain number of households in a wide range of income groups with varying levels of participation in food assistance and other government programs. To determine if a household meets the requirements to participate in the NFS Field Test, which will vary depending on the number of households with certain demographics we have already spoken to throughout the study, you will need to conduct the short 12 minute screener with a member of the household age 18 or older.

If you find that the respondent is hesitant about participation, stop before you get a refusal and offer to come back at a time that works for the household. Leave a copy of the disclaimer form. This will give them time to think about the study and particularly the incentives and will hopefully result in them reconsidering their participation when you return. To learn more, see Chapter 3 Averting Refusals.

Once a participant has agreed to conduct the screener, you will begin data collection using the IMS. The best setting for the NFS Field Test interviews is at the sample household, preferably in or near the kitchen. The interviews ask about the household’s home routine and, ideally, the Food Log training should be conducted where the PR will regularly access their food and Internet. There may be many reasons why respondents may not want you to conduct the interview in the home. The person may feel unsafe or uncomfortable having you inside the home. Depending on the reason, suggest a porch or patio outside the home, or meet in a quiet room in the building or complex if the respondent lives in an apartment building as a last resort. If the respondent invites you inside the home, ask if there is a table where you can place your computer.

The screener asks specific questions about the sampled household. We want to know the number of household members who share food, their ages, if anyone participates in food assistance programs, the family’s income, and a little about the family’s cell phone status and data plan. Table 1 breaks down the different topics the screener will cover.

Table 1. Screener Interview Breakdown

Address Verification	Address verification questions to determine if the sampled address is correct and at least one person in the household lives at the address for the entire year.
Household Entity	Collect the number of people in household (include infants, small-children, and non-relatives).
Pregnant or Infant Household Members	The number of household members who are pregnant or have an infant, but are not on Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
Total Household Income	The total income for everyone in the household who shares food (include all sources of income) and determine which income category the household falls in.
SNAP Benefits	Determine if any household members participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
WIC Benefits	Determine if any household members receive benefits from WIC
smartphone/Computer Usage	Questions that ask household members about cellphone, smartphone, tablet, and laptop/computer ownership and usage.

After the screener is complete, the household’s eligibility is determined by the CAPI system. This information will be provided to you on your screen at the end of the screener. If a household is not selected to be in the study, thank them for their time, and as promised provide the household the $5 cash incentive. Explain that in order to produce a representative sample, the study only takes households with certain characteristics. Note that it is nothing personal and that the information they did provide is still very important and useful to conducting this research.

3.3.1 Screener Interview Break-Offs

Most break-offs will occur after the screener because you will then be asking participants to complete a longer initial interview and then a 45-minute training. If this happens, you will need to make arrangements to come back to conduct the initial interview and Food Log training. If possible, try to complete the following before you leave the household:

1. Have the screener respondent sign the consent form (see Section 3.5 Obtaining Household Consent), and

2. Ask if you can complete the first few questions of the initial interview.

Both of these steps are very important because all of the initial interview activities are dependent on completing these essential parts. You need to conduct the initial interview with the PR, who may or may not be the screener respondent. The first question in the initial interview will help you determine who the household’s PR is so completing that question before you leave will let you know whom you need to attempt to make an appointment with before you leave the household. If the respondent insists that they do not have time to do this, you can ask them which person in the household does most of the food shopping and/or meal preparation. If that happens to be the screener respondent, you will arrange to come back and speak to that person. If the PR is someone different, collect that person’s name and contact information so that you can arrange with them to come back to do the initial interview.

We recommend recording this information through the initial interview so that the information is captured in CAPI. However, if you do not have the time to complete the household consent and open the initial interview, you can collect information about the PR verbally and informally and enter it into an EROC (Electronic Record of Contact) in the NFS mFOS (Mobile Field Operations System).

3.5 Obtaining Household Consent

Upon completion of the screener, if the household is eligible to participate in the NFS Field Test, you must obtain signed informed consent if the household chooses to participate in the study. Informed consent means participants must agree, or consent, to take part in a study after being fully informed of the basic elements of the study and all of the possible consequences and benefits involved with partaking in the study. You will need to obtain signed consent from any adult household member before you can access the initial interview. It will be most natural to have the screener respondent sign the household consent form.

This form provides the household-level consent. There is also a parental consent form that will need to be signed by parents of youth (between ages 11 and 17) which will be discussed more in Section 3.6 Obtaining Parental Consent.

You must review the following sections of the consent form with an adult in the sampled household:

• Study sponsor;

• Study purpose;

• Study procedures;

• Incentives;

• Voluntary participation;

• Risks and benefits;

• Termination of study participation; and

• Confidentiality.

After summarizing these sections and allowing the respondent time to read the form, you must also ask the HHM if he or she has any questions about the study and review the statements on the signature page before requesting a signature.

3.6 Initial Interview Overview

If the household has been selected for the NFS, you will need to identify the person in the household who is mostly responsible for buying food and/or preparing meals for the entire household to complete the initial interview. This person will be known as the primary respondent or PR, and will be the person who is the most involved in the study. The initial interview must be completed with the selected household’s PR.

The NFS Field Test initial interview will take about 30 minutes to administer. It must be conducted with the PR and only after signed household consent has been obtained, which should have been done with any adult household member at the completion of the screener. If the PR is not the screener respondent and is not available upon the completion of the screener, you will need to schedule a time to return to the household to conduct the initial interview with the PR.

The initial interview is divided into five sections. Table 2 explains the different sections and the topics these questions cover.

Table 2. Initial Interview Breakdown

Household enumeration	Collect the names, ages, and demographic information of every household member eligible for the study. You will also identify the various food sharing groups that exist within the household.
Participation in nutrition programs	More detailed information on food assistance programs. This section asks about the amount of money/benefits received, how often the benefits are used, and (if applicable) school lunches for children.
Places where food is obtained	Questions concerning where the PR usually shops for food, why they shop there, how much they usually spend on food shopping trips, and transportation.
Food security (half of the sample)	Food security questions that ask about the food eaten in the past 30 days and whether they were able to afford the food needed. This section will be randomly administered by the CAPI system to only half of the respondents.
Collection of adult names and cell phone numbers	Close the interview. Collect phone numbers and contact information of all adult household members.

The questions on food security will be administered to all households, but half will get them during the initial interview and the other half will get them during the debriefing interview. The CAPI system will determine this randomly, so you will not know in advance if these questions will be asked during the initial or debriefing interview.

The last section of the initial interview will ask you to collect contact information for adult household members, including names, email addresses, and cell phone numbers. You will also collect permission to send text message reminders to participants who have their own cell phones. The Westat iPhones provided to the PR do not have texting capabilities so they will not be able to receive text message reminders on Westat phones. These reminders will be automatically sent daily at 7:00 PM to all participating NFS adults from a centralized Westat system regardless of if they have filled out that day’s Food Log entry or not. Participants who change their mind and do not wish to receive text message reminders can reply “Stop” to the first text message they receive. Emails will automatically go out to all respondents who provide an email address. The reminder messages will essentially be the same; however, there will be more space to explain details in the email reminders than the text reminders.

3.7 Obtaining Parental Consent

If there are children in the household ages 11-17, you will present the parental consent form after the initial interview has been completed. The PR will sign the form if the decide to give their child permission to access the Food Log and enter food on their own behalf.

Parental consent must be obtained for any children between the ages of 11 and 17 who will be participating in the study and recording their own food in the Food Log. The names of eligible children will come from the household enumeration completed in the initial interview. You will skip this task if there are no eligible children. The child’s parent or guardian will make the decision of whether or not the child will keep his/her own Food Log. If a child is not keeping a Food Log, the PR will need to do so on their behalf. The PR will also have this responsibility for children under 11 (minors who do not have the option of keeping their own Food Log).

The procedures are the same as the procedures for obtaining household consent outlined in Section 3.4 Obtaining Household Consent. You will review the following sections of the consent form with the child’s parent or guardian, who can be any adult household member:

• Study sponsor;

• Study purpose;

• Study procedures for my child;

• Incentives;

• Voluntary participation;

• Risks and benefits for my child;

• Termination of study participation; and

• Confidentiality.

Again, you must ask the parent/guardian if he or she has any questions about the study and then review the statements on the signature page. You will also answer any questions from the child if they are present.

The parental consent form will be required for all households with children ages 11-17.

3.8 Review of Respondent Electronic Equipment

To ensure every eligible household will be able to participate in the NFS Field Test, Westat will provide a laptop, MiFi device, barcode scanner, and/or smartphone to households that do not already own the technology. You will be responsible for determining the specific devices each household will need to participate in the study, distributing and tracking the equipment in CAPI, and collecting the equipment at the end of the study week. The devices used for this study are expensive and the property of Westat. Maintaining the equipment and ensuring it is returned are important aspects of your job as a Westat field interviewer.

A limited number of laptops, MiFi’s, and smartphones are available for distribution during the study. Therefore, make sure you do not offer households the equipment; instead evaluate what is needed and then provide it. Each household will only be allotted a limited number of devices, which household members may need to share for the duration of the project. The NFS Field Test website is easily accessed from any computer or laptop with Internet access and the NFS Field Test app can be downloaded on most Androids and Apple iPhones so participants will be asked to use their own devices when available. However, neither Westat nor USDA will reimburse participants for their data usage.

The following equipment will be available to loan to participants who need it, in order to participate in the NFS Field Test:

Laptop and Accessories. The Westat provided laptop is a Dell Latitude E5500 Laptop. The laptop will come with a laptop bag, power cord, mouse, and mouse pad. The laptop will not have any programs installed except for Internet Explorer, which respondents will use to connect to the NFS Field Test website. No other programs can be downloaded onto the laptop.

Smartphone (iPhone) and Accessories. The iPhone will come with a charger. Like the laptop, the smartphone will have limited features and no additional applications can be downloaded onto the device.

Handheld Barcode Scanner. All households will receive a handheld Symbol Barcode scanner (model # [INSERT NUMBER]). The scanner can be connected to any laptop or computer via the USB port with a USB cable.

MiFi Device. Westat uses a Verizon MiFi ([INSERT NAME]) device to connect to the Internet. Each MiFi will include a Network Name and Password that individuals will use to connect to the device. Instructions on using the MiFi will be provided in training.

3.8.1 Rules for Distributing Westat Equipment

There are procedures to follow for when Westat equipment should be distributed to sampled households. These rules and procedures have been established to help you determine when equipment is to be given and when equipment is not to be given. Although we expect you to follow these procedures, there will be exceptions to the rules. The bottom line is that we do not have enough equipment to give every household a laptop, smartphone, and MiFi device. However, the goal is that every household has a functioning laptop, smartphone, and Internet connection to participate in the study. In your possession, you will have packs of respondent equipment (which includes a Barcode scanner, Laptop, iPhone, and MiFi device) but you may not give all pieces to a household. Some households may only need one or two pieces of equipment—that is fine. You do not need to give out the entire pack of equipment; you can break the packs apart and give only some pieces.

Smartphones

You will provide a household with a Westat iPhone in the following situations only:

1. The PR does not own a smartphone, or

2. The FoodLogger App fails to download on the PR’s smartphone.

If the PR does not own a smartphone, you will provide the PR with a Westat iPhone.

If the PR has an iPhone or Android device of their own, you should assist them in downloading the Food Study App onto their own device. If the App fails to download, you will need to provide them with a Westat iPhone. Additionally, if the PR is resistant to download the NFS App on their phone, use information provided in the FAQs to explain that the App will not use a lot of data and they can delete the App when they are done with the study. If you are unable to convince them to use their own phone for the study, you will give them a Westat iPhone to participate in the study.

If other household members want to download the App on their smartphone after the training, instruct the PR that there are detailed instructions for doing this included in the “Downloading the National Food Study App” reference document, which is located under the Help link on the study website.

Android Devices Tested

You should be aware that there are many different Android smartphones, and during the development of the Android app, we only tested the four most popular Android devices. Those included:

1. ENTER NAMES OF DEVICES TESTED

Therefore, if a respondent has an Android device other than the ones we have tested (listed above) and the App fails to download on their device, you will need to give them a Westat iPhone.

Laptops

Additionally, households that do not own a functioning laptop or computer will be provided with a Westat laptop. You will be able to determine the status of a household’s computer/laptop during the training of the Food Log. The PR should use their own computer (if they have one) to access the study website and watch the orientation videos. During this process, you will be able to determine if the household’s laptop can be used for study participation. It is possible that a number of issues could be presented regarding the functionality of the household’s computer, making it not suitable for study participation. For example, if the computer has viruses that prevent access to the study website. In this example, the computer would be deemed non-functional and you would need to loan the household a Westat laptop. There may be other instances where a household’s computer will not be considered functional; you will need to use your judgement on when to loan a laptop and when not to.

Scanner and MiFi

If a household is unable to use the FoodLogger app, they will be trained to access the web-version of the Food Log on a computer. The handheld scanner will be required in order to enter food through the web version. Only provide a handheld scanner to a household if they do not plan to use the FoodLogger app to report their food acquisitions.

Households without Internet access will receive a MiFi device for Internet connectivity.

Again, there may be instances where a household has Internet, but is unable to use it for the study. For example, if they do not know their WiFi password and are therefore unable to use the Westat laptop to reach the study website, you will need to give the household a MiFi device.

If you give a household both a laptop and a MiFi, the MiFi should dock automatically to the Westat laptop and you will not need to instruct the respondent to enter a password to connect to the Internet.

If you loan a MiFi to a household but they are using their own laptop, their laptop will not dock automatically and they will need to enter in the MiFi password to connect their laptop to the internet via the MiFi device.

3.8.2 Equipment Tracking Form

To track the equipment loaned to respondents, you will need to fill out two equipment tracking forms. The first form is electronic and can be launched from the IMS Task Details list and will be used by you and Westat staff to track the equipment loaned to the household. The form launches to an initial text screen which will assist you with discussing the status of electronic equipment in the household. At this point, you may have an idea of what the household has and what they will need, however, you may not know exactly what equipment they will require to participate until after the FoodLogger training and practice. We want to encourage use oath e FoodLogger app, as it is the easiest way to report food and drinks. Therefore, the training should always take place on a smartphone. For consistency, you should use your Westat iPhone for the training. The PR and any other HH member can download the app on their phone, but they will not be able to access the 7-day Food Log until their study week starts, which will always be the day after the training is complete.

You can still use your phone to access the training videos and show the PR how to access the orientation videos through the Help link. Doing this will help you determine if the respondent’s computer is functional for study participation. It will also help the respondent get familiar with how to use the Help tools available to them on the FoodLogger.

The second screen will collect information (including the associated asset tags and serial numbers) that will be logged electronically in the case’s equipment tracking form. You will need to scan or manually enter in all asset tag/serial numbers associated with the loaned Westat equipment using the barcode scanner into the IMS before leaving the equipment with the household. The only piece of equipment that you will not need to scan or enter a serial number for is the barcode scanner. However, you should still check off the scanner as a piece of equipment that you left with the household. This electronic equipment tracking form will ensure that Westat has an electronic record of the exact items left in the household to be picked up during the final visit. Additionally, you should enter in the password associated with the Westat laptop if you are leaving a Westat laptop with the household. This will allow the Help Desk to look up the password if they household loses the password.

The second Equipment Form will be a hardcopy sheet for the household to keep (Exhibit 3-1). This form is important because it will contain the laptop password if the household is loaned a Westat laptop. It will also contain passwords of other Westat equipment loaned to the household. The PR will check off the equipment loaned to them using a pen, sign and date it, and keep the form for their own reference and records.

Exhibit 3-1. Hardcopy Equipment Tracking Form (front)

Exhibit 3-1. Hardcopy Equipment Tracking Form (back)

3.9 FoodLogger Training

After obtaining household consent and distributing equipment, you will complete an in-person training with the PR and any other household members available at that time. The training requires the PR and other household members to watch a series of participant orientation videos and complete short quizzes following each video. The PR is the only household member who must be present for the in-person training with the Westat interviewer, although other household members can also take part in the training at this time if they are available.

The training videos are available in the Help link of the FoodLogger app for all other household members to view later. The training can be found under the “Help” tab and is listed as “Orientation Videos”. Though the training can be accessed via a smartphone or computer.

You will collect the names of all household members as a part of the initial interview. Upon its completion, the NFS FoodLogger accounts will be automatically generated in the IMS for all household members over the age of 11. Each household will be assigned a PIN that can be used by all household members the first time they log into the FoodLogger. Share the PIN with the PR before you begin the NFS FoodLogger training and instruct them to write down their new password on the Equipment Form.

For the FoodLogger training, you should be using your Westat iPhone. You will go to the Participant Orientation section of the Help tab to play the videos for the PR. You will need to be available to answer any questions that may come up as they watch the training video. Be attentive to the PR. You will be asked to evaluate their preparedness and technical ability to complete the FoodLogger using a smartphone and whether they understood the concepts of the study. If you notice the PR is struggling, spend extra time reviewing the FoodLogger to ensure they feel comfortable and confident using the system. If necessary, show the PR how to use the computer to access the web version of the Food Log. This should only be done if the smartphone app is too difficult for the PR to use due to lack of familiarity and ease using apps in general, small size of screen, etc. If a PR requires a computer, they can use their own or be loaned a Westat computer. However, the use of a computer will always require a handheld barcode scanner.

The first two videos introduce the study, the website, and the smartphone App. The remaining videos demonstrate how to enter information into the FoodLogger during the 7-day data collection period. There is a short quiz after each video. The quizzes were developed to test the respondent’s understanding of the FoodLogger. The questions are multiple choice and, if the incorrect option is selected, an explanation of the right answer will appear after the quiz is submitted. “Failing” the quiz will not disqualify the household from participating in the study but will show you that they might need more help. The respondent training is divided into six required videos, which are described in Table 3 below.

Table 3. Participant Orientation to the FoodLogger

Video 1	Welcome to the National Food Study (NFS) Field Test
Video 2	Getting Started with the FoodLogger
Video 3	Entering food/drink Items from Places like Grocery Stores
Video 4	Entering food/drink Items from Places like Restaurants
Video 5	Completing Profile and Income Questionnaires
Video 6	Final Daily FoodLogger Task

Household members that are not present during the training can watch the videos and complete the quizzes at their convenience by accessing the videos on the FoodLogger app. You do not have to be present during those trainings. The PR can assist other household members with accessing the training and answering questions, they may have.

Following the PR training on the FoodLogger, you should walk the PR through the steps of downloading the app on their personal smartphone. This will require that they go to their phone’s app store, find the app, download it, and log in with the HH PIN. Although the PR will to be able to access the 7-day Food Log until the following day when their study week starts, they will be able to go through the initial tutorial screens and learn about the importance of push notifications, enabling the location services which allows the GPS to offer potential food stops to the respondent, and learn more about the concepts referred to in the FoodLogger such as “Food Stop” and “Food Event”. Make sure you allow the PR time to read, review, and ask questions during these tutorial screens to ensure they understand the information and can instruct other household members on what to do. The PR can complete the income and profile questionnaires if they want at any time during the study week.

3.9.1 Income Questionnaire and Profile Questionnaire Overview

During the 7-day study week, household members aged 16 and older will need to fill out an income questionnaire and all household members will need to complete a profile questionnaire independently. You do not need to administer these questionnaires to the PR, but you should remind them that this is an important study component on the FoodLogger. The orientation videos will talk a little about these tasks, but you should remind them of it and ask if they have any questions about it.

Income Questionnaire

The income questionnaire is a task listed in the FoodLogger app and is to be filled out during the 7-day study week by each household member over the age of 16. The PR will have the ability to fill out the income questionnaire on the behalf of every household member. Even if a household member does not have any sources of income, they will still fill out a shortened version of the income questionnaire. The income questionnaires start by asking if the household member receives income from any of the following sources:

• Work;

• Unemployment;

• Welfare;

• Child support;

• Retirement;

• Disability; and

• Investments.

If the household member receives a particular type of income, the CAPI system will ask the respondent details about how much was received from each source in the last month or the last year. The CAPI system will calculate the average monthly income for respondents receiving an hourly or weekly wage.

Reporting of approximate amounts is encouraged if the household member is either uncomfortable with sharing or unsure of the exact amount.

Profile Questionnaire

The profile questionnaire is also a task listed in the FoodLogger app and is to be filled out during the 7-day study week by each household member who has a FoodLogger account. Like the income questionnaire, the PR will have the ability to fill out the profile questionnaire on the behalf of every household member. The profile questionnaire covers the following topics:

• Demographics;

• Health;

• Work;

• Food access;

• Height/Weight;

• Citizenship;

• Home ownership; and

• Taxes.

3.9.2 FoodLogger Practice

Following the FoodLogger training, you will spend a few moments with the PR practicing what they just learned in the orientation videos. The FoodLogger practice should be done on your Westat iPhone. Since their study week will begin the following day, they will not be able to access the 7-day Food Log if they log into their own FoodLogger account.

Use the laminated FoodLogger practice document and watch the PR practice entering grocery food and restaurant food. This will allow you to observe them scanning food, entering in the PLU codes, and typing in descriptions. They can also practice answering the initial and follow-up questions for the foods. We will talk more about this in Chapters 8 and 9.

When you leave the household, you can remind them to watch all the training videos that have been made available. These include the ones they watched during the FoodLogger training and also some supplemental videos. They can review the materials that have been provided to them on what food and drinks to report and what not to report. This will all better prepare them to begin their study week the following day. The following day will be day 1 of the household’s study week.

1. Training Questions

After the PR has viewed the FoodLogger orientation videos and practiced using the FoodLogger to scan a few items, you will be asked to answer a few questions about how the training went. These questions are to be answered by you alone and not in collaboration with the PR or in the presence of the PR. You may not be able to complete the FoodLogger Training task until you get home and are able to answer the questions associated with how the PR did during the training.

3.10 Closing out the Initial Visit

Once all initial visit activities are completed, you will notice that the Action column for the items that have already been completed will be blank and the Task Disposition column will be “Complete”. You will see the “Launch” and “EROC” buttons for the final visit items. Your IMS task details list should look like Exhibit 3-2.

Exhibit 3-2. IMS Task Details List

3.10.1 Schedule Debriefing Interview Appointment

Before leaving the household, you will need to make an appointment to come back a week later for the debriefing interview. To make an appointment, you should be able to click on the EROC button associated with the “Debriefing interview” task row to set an appointment for the Debriefing interview.

There are a couple things to keep in mind when scheduling this appointment.

1. You cannot come back for the final visit sooner than 7 days after the household begins the FoodLogger. The household should begin their study week the day after they complete the FoodLogger training. For example, if the initial interview and training are completed on a Saturday, the Food Log would begin for the household on Sunday and their 7-day study period would be over after the following Saturday. You should arrange to return for the final visit starting the following Sunday. Only in special situations, you will allow a household to delay a few days before beginning the Food Log.

2. There may be some rare circumstances where the household would prefer to start their study week on a day other than the day after they complete their FoodLogger training. For example, maybe they are scheduled to have surgery or have a death in the family and would prefer to postpone the start of their study week by a day or so. Though we do not want to encourage this, it may be necessary in some rare situations. To change the start date of the study week, you will click on the “Change” button in the “Start Date” column of the FoodLogger Participants Box in the IMS. The automated date will appear by default; but you can change this if the primary respondent absolutely needs to change it.

3. The final visit will include conducting a debriefing interview with the PR.

3.11 Debriefing interview Overview

Following the 7-day study period, you will return to the household to conduct a final in-person debriefing interview. You should schedule this appointment during the initial interview and confirm with the PR towards the end of the week. Ideally, the debriefing interview should take place with the PR the day after the 7-day study period is completed. If the PR is unavailable on that day, schedule the debriefing interview for as close to that day as possible. The debriefing interview will take about 30 minutes to administer.

3.11.1 Confirming Household Incentives Earned

At the close of the debriefing interview, you will come to a screen with a breakdown of the total household incentives earned so far. Note that some incentives are “pending” because they have not been completed yet. You will need to review this with the PR. You can remind them that the pending tasks and amounts will be added to the total incentives earned once they are completed. The goal of this is to ensure there are no surprises when the household receives their incentive check in the mail. We want to avoid calls to the Help Desk regarding the incentive amount.

You will see each of the tasks and the incentive amount associated with each listed. If the task is complete, the incentive amount will appear. If the task is not complete, the incentive will show as “$0.00”.

Table 5 below shows the maximum amount of money a household can earn for completing each of the 7-days of the FoodLogger. As you can see, there are two groups: control and experiment. Each household will be assigned to either the control or experiment group. The household will earn different incentive amounts depending on their group assignment. The main difference between the control and experiment is that the control group will receive a constant $5/day for completion of the FoodLogger. Households in the experiment group will see a $5 increase in incentive starting on day 4 for completion of the FoodLogger. The IMS will flag for you the group assignment of each household.

Table 5. FoodLogger Incentives for Participation (Control and Experiment Households)

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7	Max Total (7-day Food Log)
Control	$5	$5	$5	$5	$5	$5	$5	$35
Experiment	$5	$5	$5	$10	$10	$10	$10	$55

Participating households will also receive additional incentives for other study tasks, including the screeners (mail and in-person), the initial interview and FoodLogger training, the debriefing interview, the income questionnaire, and profile questionnaire. Table 5a below describes the total possible incentives a household participating in the NFS Field Test could earn.

Table 5a. Total Study Participation Incentives (Control and Experiment Households)

HH Size	Mail/in-person screeners	Initial Interview & training	Food Logger	Debrefing Interview	Income Quex	Profile Ques	Max Total (full survey)
1	$5/$5	$40	$35/$55	$16	$2	$2	$105/$125
2	$5/$5	$40	$70/$110	$16	$4	$4	$144/$184
3	$5/$5	$40	$105/$165	$16	$6	$6	$183/$243
4	$5/$5	$40	$140/$220	$16	$8	$8	$222/$302

If there are multiple people in a household recording their food, the household will be able to earn more money during the FoodLogger phase of the study. The incentive earned for the initial and debriefing interviews will be the same as a single person household, but the other household members will earn money for their individual FoodLoggers.

The check will be made out to the PR, as we cannot divide the incentive money into individual checks for each household member. The PR will be responsible for ensuring the other household members receive their money, which is tracked on the NFS FoodLogger.

3.12 Collect Westat Equipment

At the end of the data collection week, you will collect the equipment when you return for the debriefing interview. Make sure that you have everything back, including chargers, USB cables, etc. You can access the Equipment Return Form in the IMS to record that each piece of loaned equipment that was returned.

You will need to log this information back into the Equipment Return Form.

You should not leave without collecting the Westat equipment that was loaned to the household. If a household fails to return any borrowed Westat equipment, the incentive check will not be sent.

For lost, damaged, or stolen equipment, call the NFS Field Test Help Desk (see Chapter 5 Equipment for more information). They will decide whether it must be replaced. Replacement equipment will be shipped directly to you. You will need to implement the ‘clean out’ procedures before you hand equipment received from one household to a subsequent household. Failure to do so may result in a disclosure of PII. See Chapter 5, Section 5.3.2 for equipment cleaning procedures.

 

Attachment H3 – Data Collection (Interviewer Training Manual)	3-0