Justification for nonsubstantive change 5-5-21

Non-Substantive Change Request

HHS ASPA COVID-19 Public Education Campaign Market Research

(OMB 0990-0476; expires 7/31/21)

The Market Research emergency clearance package OMB approved in January 2021 covers a series of Foundational Focus Groups (FFGs) to examine the topics of preventative behaviors and vaccine knowledge, intent, attitudes, and barriers and motivators to vaccination. As noted within the original submission, the composition of audiences and content will change between iterations to accommodate the current state of COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination.

As such the focus group discussion guide is revised to include in-depth questions about vaccine attitudes since the broader vaccine rollout has occurred since original submission. We also added a new discussion guide for two groups with vaccinated participants that will explore motivation to vaccinate after initial hesitation, vaccination process and experience, and post-vaccination behaviors.

The number of focus groups and number of participants is unchanged—the study will conduct 18 focus groups comprised of 4-6 participants per group with a variety of audiences as summarized in the table below. As in our initial submission, we propose to conduct focus groups with general population adults, Black/African American adults, Hispanic/Latinx adults, and American Indian/Alaska Native adults. We now propose to also conduct focus groups with Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander adults, as well as those who fall into subclusters of the movable middle (i.e., those who are hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine but indicate at least a moderate likelihood of eventually getting it) based on race/ethnicity, political ideology, and gender. Recruitment screeners are revised to reflect the updated target populations.

Approval of these changes allows the program to conduct a study consistent with the current environment in order to secure actionable insights to inform the ongoing HHS ASPA COVID-19 Public Education Campaign.

	Non-Vaccinated Focus Groups	Vaccinated Focus Groups	Screening Notes
General Population		2	Mix of genders, ages, race, ethnicity, education level, ideology, geographic location, and income
Hispanic/Latinx	3		Segment by language and age (1 Spanish group ages 18-34, 1 Spanish group ages 35+, 1 English group ages 18-34)
Black/African American	3		Segment by age (2 ages 18-34, 1 ages 35+)
American Indian/Alaska Native	2		Segment by gender (1 female group, 1 male group)
Asian American	2		Segment by ethnic group (1 Chinese group, 1 Vietnamese group)
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	1		Mix of genders, ages, education level, ideology, geographic location, and income
Unsure Waiters	3		Target persons of color, moderate or liberal ideology; mix of education level, geographic location, and income; segment by age (2 ages 18-34, 1 ages 35+)
Definite Waiters	2		Target non-Hispanic White persons with conservative ideology; mix of genders, education level, geographic location, and income; segment by age (1 ages 18-34, 1 ages 35+)
TOTAL	16	2