National Survey on Drug Use and Health:
Lead Letter Focus Groups
SUPPORTING STATEMENT
B. COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
The sample of 54 focus group participants to be recruited will be non-probability based. Participants will consist of adult volunteers who are screened and determined to meet recruitment criteria. Participants will be recruited via an advertisement posted on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), Craigslist, and Facebook. For recruiting mostly/only Spanish speakers for the Spanish focus groups, local organizations in cities with a large proportion of Hispanic/Latino people based on Census data will be contacted.
SAMHSA considered recruitment methods and venues for holding the focus groups and settled on recruiting participants online to participate in virtual focus groups for multiple reasons. As noted on page 2, SAMHSA intends to include participants from each of the four Census regions and Puerto Rico. Online advertising is the most effective and efficient way to recruit participants for qualitative data collection without geographically restricting participants. If SAMHSA were to recruit participants in-person or by placing flyers in public places or in offices who agreed to allow recruitment, this would provide a set of participants with a very narrow geographic range. Additionally, if SAMHSA were to conduct the focus group for each Census region in-person at one or two locations, this would further narrow the geographic range of participants. Conducting in-person focus groups in-person would also exclude participants who are not comfortable with close in-person gatherings due the coronavirus pandemic.
The composition of potential participants for the focus groups will adhere to the following guidelines:
Only adults who are at least 18 years old will be recruited for the focus groups. While the NSDUH sample includes individuals 12 and older, the Lead Letter is targeted at adults only because screening interviews are not conducted with minors.
Since all focus groups will be conducted virtually via Zoom videoconferencing software, only individuals with access to a desktop or laptop computer with audio and video capabilities will be eligible for focus group selection.
For each online focus group, effort will be made to recruit participants with some diversity across demographic characteristics such as age, gender identity, race/ethnicity, and education level. To increase the potential for the focus groups to include participants who are less technology-savvy, but are still willing to participate online, the focus groups will have age group targets. The age groups targets shown in Table 1 will be tracked during to recruitment to ensure the focus groups include a sufficient number of adults 50 year old or older, in addition to younger adults.
Table 1. Participant Age Group Targets
As NSDUH interviews are conducted in both English and Spanish, SAMHSA will conduct both English and Spanish focus groups. The Spanish groups will attempt to include participants who speak primarily or only Spanish and would not be included in the pool of potential participants for the English focus groups.
A total of nine online focus groups will be conducted with adults who represent the four Census Bureau regions and Puerto Rico1. Six participants will be recruited for each group. The focus groups and languages will be distributed as follows:
Region 1 Northeast – 2 English focus groups
Region 2 Midwest – 2 English focus groups
Region 3 South – 1 English focus group, 1 Spanish focus group
Region 4 West – 1 English focus group, 1 Spanish focus group
Puerto Rico – 1 Spanish focus group
Table 1 in Section A.12 details the estimated number of participants to be recruited according to the characteristics detailed above for the focus groups. If after approximately 450 screenings, some focus group openings are unfilled, potential participants on the wait list will be re-contacted to fill the vacant focus group slots to maximize the attempt to obtain 54 study participants. Up to three eligible participants will be placed on the wait list for each focus group. All 54 participants will consist of volunteers who are screened and determined to meet recruitment criteria.
As discussed above, participants will be recruited via the Focus Group Recruitment Ad (Attachment B) posted on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), Craigslist, and Facebook. For recruiting mostly/only Spanish speakers for the Spanish focus groups, local organizations in cities with a large proportion of Hispanic/Latino people based on Census data will be contacted. The recruitment ad will reference the $75 gift card (electronic or physical depending on the participant’s choice) incentive.
Participant Screening: Participants will complete the Online Eligibility Screener (Attachment C) to determine eligibility. Potential participants will be screened for demographic information (age, gender identity, race/ethnicity, education level, and primary language), city and state of residence, and access to a desktop or laptop computer with the necessary software for audio and video capabilities on Zoom. Furthermore, contact information (first name, e-mail address, and telephone number) will also be collected from potential participants. To receive focus group information, participants will be required to have an email address that can receive attachments.
After initial selections are made, a project team member will contact eligible participants via email to confirm their availability for the applicable focus group. The project team member will also remind participants about the $75 gift card incentive upon completing the focus group. If available, participants will then be asked to provide their preferred gift card type and the necessary contact information for delivering the incentive. Participants will have two gift card options—either an electronic gift card sent to their email address, or a physical gift card mailed to their physical address. These participants will later receive a confirmation e-mail containing the date and time for their assigned focus group, the group meeting information, and the Focus Group Informed Consent Form (Attachment D) to review.
Potential participants who respond to the recruitment ad after the requisite number of participants has been recruited will be placed on a wait list with their permission. During this phase, individuals on the wait list may be called to ask if they are available, if one or more originally scheduled participants is not able to attend a scheduled focus group. As specified in Section A.10, recruitment and contact information will be kept in locked cabinets and password protected electronic files and only shared with those who are assigned to recruit participants for the sessions.
Online Focus Group: Focus groups will be conducted by survey methodologists trained in conducting focus groups. Prior to the first session, a focus group training will be held to discuss the goals of the project and train moderators on the procedures specific to this study.
When each participant arrives for their focus group, they will be greeted and asked to listen to instructions and information from the moderator, including completion and acknowledgement of the consent form. All focus groups will be both audio and video recorded.
To begin each focus group, the moderator and notetaker will welcome respondents and introduce themselves. The moderator will then review the Focus Group Informed Consent Form (Attachment D), answer any questions, and ask each participant to confirm their willingness to participate and be recorded. For logistical purposes, participants must consent to be audio and video recorded in order to be included in the study. If anyone decides to withdraw from the study, the moderator will thank them for their interest and the notetaker will politely remove them from the session. After participants have given their consent, the moderator will begin the introduction section where general rules/etiquettes are reviewed, and participants are asked to introduce themselves to the group by first name only. Throughout the session, respondents will only be identified by their first names.
After the introduction section, the focus group will commence. The moderator will begin the recording and proceed with the session by reading the subsequent sections of the Focus Group Moderator’s Guide (Attachment E). Participants will be asked to provide feedback about the current and alternative versions of the Lead Letter (included in Attachment A), as well as their attitudes and opinions towards participating in surveys in general. The moderator may probe based upon the content of the discussion and participant responses. The moderator’s role will also require some latitude to deviate from and/or make changes to the guide during the focus group process in order to follow up on new information that is gained from respondents during the course of the discussion.
Following the session, incentives will be delivered based on the participant’s preferred method—either an electronic $75 gift card sent to their email address, or a physical $75 gift card mailed to their physical address. Accompanying the gift cards, participants will receive a thank you letter or email, depending on the incentive option selected – electronic gift codes get a thank you email, physical gift cards get a letter (which are included as Attachment F).
Participants will be offered a $75 gift card (electronic or physical) incentive to encourage participation. The recruiting ad will advertise that incentive. To assure recruited participants attend their scheduled session, each selected person will receive a reminder e-mail or telephone call the day before the session. This contact will include log on instructions and an opportunity to ask any questions about the purpose or logistics of the study. The participant will also be reminded about the $75 gift card incentive.
The activities to be conducted under this approval are in themselves tests of procedures.
There are no statistical consultants associated with this study.
Attachment A Current and Alternative Lead Letter
Attachment B Focus Group Recruitment Ad
Attachment C Online Eligibility Screener
Attachment D Focus Group Informed Consent Form
Attachment E Focus Group Moderator’s Guide
Attachment F Focus Group Incentive Correspondence
Attachment G Federalwide Assurance
Attachment H NSDUH Confidentiality Pledge
1 SAMHSA is exploring expansion of NSDUH data collection into Puerto Rico starting in 2024.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | National Survey on Drug Use and Health: SUD Module Redesign Study |
| Author | RTI International |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-10-02 |