4 Interview Guidelines

Semi-structured Interview Protocol:

National Children’s Study (NCS)

Project: NCS Message and Materials Testing Interviews

Client: NIH/NICHD

Date: TBD 2010

Study Purpose

The NICHD will conduct research with women and health care providers to explore knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about the National Children’s Study and to test draft educational messages and materials to promote the National Children’s Study and encourage participation.

Intended Outcomes

The findings of this research will inform communication efforts related to the National Children’s Study and be used to guide the development of future study materials developed for these audiences.

Summary of Planned Focus Group Activities

Discussion Categories	Approximate Time for Discussion
Opening Remarks and Introduction/Warm-up	5 minutes
Issue A: Knowledge/Attitudes about NCS	25 minutes
Issue B: Message/Materials Testing	25 minutes
Closing	5 minutes
Total Time Available	60 Minutes

Introduction

Hello. My name is ________. The main purpose of our discussion is to get your opinion about the National Children’s Study and some health education materials that have been developed. I did not take part in the development of these materials, so please feel free to make positive or negative comments about any of the things we’ll be discussing today. This is a free-flowing discussion and there are no wrong answers. The session is being taped so I can write an accurate report afterward. Your name will not be used in the report. You’ll see that there’s a mirror behind me. There are observers sitting behind the mirror taking notes. They’re doing this so I can listen to what is being said and not have to be distracted by writing notes. These notes will give us an accurate report on what is being said.

Are there any questions before we get started?

Warm-Up (5 minutes)

The purpose of this section is to discuss how health care providers communicate with women about health research, if at all.

1. Have you ever spoken to a patient about current or ongoing health research?

• What did you tell them about?

• Why did you think it was relevant to that patient?

2. What kind of questions, if any, do patients come to you with about research studies?

• Is this more/less/the same as in past years?

3. Have you recently participated in any medical research studies or recruited any of your patients into health studies?

• Why or why not?

• If yes, what was the purpose of the research?

Issue A: Knowledge and Attitudes about the NCS (25 minutes)

I am interested in finding out what you think about the National Children’s Study, so in this next section, I am going to ask you some questions related to the Study.

1. Have you heard about the National Children’s Study?

2. If yes, tell me what you know about the National Children’s Study?

• Who is the sponsor? Are they credible?

• What is it trying to research?

• Who is eligible for participation?

3. What are your thoughts about the National Children’s Study?

• Do you agree with what the National Children’s Study is trying to accomplish? [Why/why not?]

4. What would you say if one of your patients asked you about the National Children’s Study?

• What if they were asked to participate?

• What if they wanted to participate?

5. If you wanted to learn more about the National Children’s Study, where would you go?

Probe:

• Professional organization

• Colleague

• Printed material

• Internet

6. Would you or have you ever encouraged participation in the National Children’s Study to any of your patients?

• Why or why not?

7. If you were asked to help refer participants to the National Children’s Study, what information would you like to have beforehand?

• Who would you like to receive this information from?

• In what format would you like to receive this information?

8. If you were asked to help refer participants to the National Children’s Study, what information would you like to have for your patients beforehand?

• Who would you like to receive this information from?

• In what format would you like to receive this information?

9. Are there others in your workplace who may be the more appropriate person to discuss the National Children’s Study with patients?

Issue B: Message/Materials Testing (25 minutes)

The purpose of this section is to review samples of messages and materials to get providers’ feedback on their content and how they would be used in practice.

Next, I’d like to get your feedback on some sample educational materials. First, I’d like you to read [first piece], and then I’ll ask you some questions about it.

[Rotate order of the materials].

1. What is your overall impression of this piece?

2. What, if anything, was positive about it?

3. What, if anything, was negative about it?

4. Was there any information missing?

Probe:

[If yes] What information was missing?

5. What information in this piece do you think is most important?

Probe:

What makes this important to you?

6. What would you change or remove?

7. Was anything unclear or confusing?

8. Would you use this in your practice? If so, how?

• Self or staff education?

• Discuss with patients?

• Give to patients but not discuss?

• Leave out for patients to take?

• Others?

[Repeat above questions with the other materials.]

The purpose of these resources is to help health care providers communicate with patients about the National Children’s Study.

1. Would you use materials like these in your practice? If so, how?

• Do you think these materials might benefit your practice? If so, how?

• What might be some barriers to using the materials in your practice?

2. What changes would you suggest to make these materials more helpful to you and your patients?

• Content?

• Format?

• Source?

3. Some of the materials were designed to be particularly useful for patients who may be eligible to participate in the National Children’s Study.

• How useful do you think these materials would be to help you communicate with these patients?

• If you were to use materials for patients eligible for the National Children’s Study, how do you think you would identify these parents?

Conclusion and wrap-up (5 minutes)

The purpose of this section is to give participants the opportunity to ask any last questions that they have about the provider resources or anything else that you have discussed.

Thank you very much for talking with me today. Your feedback will help us improve educational materials. Is there anything else that you would like to say before we end our discussion?

Thank you.