FFG Nonsubstantive change request 3-17-22

Non-Substantive Change Request

HHS ASPA COVID-19 Public Education Campaign Market Research

(OMB 0990-0476; expires 7/31/24)

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.

The number of focus groups and number of participants is unchanged—the study will conduct 18 focus groups in English comprised of 4-6 participants per group with a new audience, vaccinated parents of very young children in advance of COVID-19 vaccination approval for said age group, broken out as follows:

• 6 focus groups with vaccinated parents who say they will get their child vaccinated as soon as vaccines are authorized and available to them

  • 3 focus groups with parents of children 6 months – under 2 years old

    • 1 Black/African American (B/AA), 1 Hispanic/Latino, 1 general population

  • 3 focus groups with parents of children ages 2–4  

    • 1 B/AA, 1 Hispanic/Latino, 1 general population 

• 12 focus groups with vaccinated parents who say they will wait to get their child vaccinated once vaccines are authorized and available to them for one or more reasons

  • 6 focus groups with parents of children 6 months–under 2 years old

    • 2 B/AA, 2 Hispanic/Latino, 2 general population 

  • 6 focus groups with parents of children ages 2–4

    • 2 B/AA, 2 Hispanic/Latino, 2 general population 

An incentive of $100 for participation remains unchanged from earlier rounds of foundational focus groups. The recruitment screener is revised to reflect the updated target populations. The focus group discussion guide is also revised to include in-depth questions to better understand current attitudes of vaccinated adults towards COVID-19 vaccines for their children under five and how we can best communicate the benefits of vaccination to them once the vaccine is authorized. The discussion will also explore experiences with COVID-19, COVID-19 impact on daily life, trusted messengers, and early draft creative mock-ups to gauge reactions and potential impacts to inform actual advertisements. These steps are critical as research shows that vaccination concerns by parents regarding their children increases significantly for the youngest group of children primarily due to fear of short- and long-term side effects especially on the smallest bodies still in very early developmental stages.

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.