Home Appliance Owner: Focus Group Discussion Guide

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-XXXX

Expiration Date XX/XX/20XX

ATTACHMENT 11:

HOME APPLIANCE OWNERS FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE

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Data Collection

Setting: Focus groups (FG) will meet for approximately 2 hours in a professional focus group facility. A trained moderator will meet with the participant. A note taker will take notes from a behind a one- way mirror.

Consenting: Informed consent will be obtained by the note taker as the participants arrive at the facility.

Process: The focus group will comprise the following steps:

1. Survey: As participants are seated, they will fill out a brief background survey

2. Welcome:

a. Welcome—the moderator will welcome the participants and explain the purpose of the focus group session.

b. Ground rules—the moderator will provide guidance to ensure that participants are allowed to speak without interruption by other participants.

3. Warm-up: Participants will introduce themselves and provide a little information about themselves.

4. Discussion: In the focus group, participants will discuss the following topics

a. Current practices concerning safety in the home

b. Home furnace maintenance and safety

c. Carbon monoxide risk in the home

d. Carbon monoxide prevention and messaging

5. Closing

Welcome (5 min)

Thank you for coming today. Your participation is very important. I’m _____, and I’m from RTI International. I am conducting these focus groups for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose of this focus group is to discuss with you how best to inform people about home furnace safety. Your insights are very important to us, and your time today is appreciated. This group will last about two hours.

• You have probably noticed the microphones in the room. They are here because we are audio taping. At the end of today’s discussion, I have to write a report. I want to give you my full attention and not have to take a lot of notes. I will refer to the tape when writing the report.

• Behind me is a one-way mirror. Some of the people working on this project are observing this discussion so that they can hear your opinions directly from you. However, your identity and anything you personally say here will remain confidential. Your names, addresses, and phone numbers will not be given to anyone, and no one will contact you after this group is over. When I write my report, I will not refer to anyone by name.

Before we begin, I want to review a few ground rules for today’s group discussion.

• Most importantly, there are no right or wrong answers. We want to know your opinions and those opinions might differ. This is fine. We want to know what each of you thinks about the issues we will be discussing. I do not work for the people who are sponsoring this research, so don’t hold back from giving me your honest opinions.

• Because we are taping, it is important that you try to speak one at a time. I may occasionally interrupt you when two or more people are talking at once in order to be sure everyone gets a chance to talk and that responses are accurately recorded.

• As a courtesy to everyone, please turn off your beepers & cell phones or place them on vibrate.

• If you need to go to the restroom during the discussion, please feel free to leave; however, I’d appreciate it if you would go one at a time.

• If you have any questions on home furnace safety at the conclusion of our discussion, we will have an expert available to help answer those questions

• Do you have any questions before we begin?

Warm up (10 min)

I would like to begin our discussion by asking you to introduce yourself and tell us:

• Your first name

• share something that you like or value about your home

I’ll start. I’m ______, and I like _____ ….who wants to go next? (Allow the group members to individually share information about themselves, keeping time so that no more than 5 minutes is used for this process).

Questions		Probes or Follow-Ups
Home Safety
1. What are some things that you do around your house to make it a safer place to live for you and other family members?		What prompted you to do those things in your home? Are there things you would like to do to improve household safety in your home, but just have not gotten around to doing? Like what?
2. When you think about or are doing things to improve safety in your home, what things are motivating you?		What would you say is your number on reason to improve the safety of you home?
Furnace Safety
3. Is your furnace something that you think about when you are considering your home’s safety?		Why or why not? What concerns do you have about your furnace?
4. When was the last time you got your furnace serviced or checked by a professional repair or service person?		Those of you whom had your furnace serviced recently, what prompted you to get your furnace serviced? How often do you have your furnace serviced? Who did you contact to service your furnace?
5. Let me ask, how often do you think one should have their furnace professional checked? [Ask several people to individually share their answers]		Does anyone know what the recommendation is for how often you should get your furnace checked to see if it functioning properly? [Share the correct answer, if necessary] Does the correct answer of once each year surprise any of you? Why is that?
6. Can you think of some reasons why people may not get their furnace checked regularly?		Those of you who have not had your furnace checked, would any of you feel comfortable sharing reasons why you have not done it? What are some things that could be done to make it easier or help homeowners get their furnaces checked more often?
Carbon Monoxide
7. What do you know about carbon monoxide gas and its health risks?		What else? What are some sources of Carbon Monoxide in homes? Can you tell me about some of the things it does to the body?
8. Is Carbon Monoxide a risk that you have thought about in your home? How So?		Before attending this group, today, how many of you associated Carbon Monoxide risk with your home furnace?
9. How would you know if there was Carbon Monoxide in your home?		How many of you know about Carbon Monoxide detector? How many of you presently have a Carbon Monoxide detector in your home? How many of you don’t know if you have one? How many of you could tell the difference between a carbon monoxide detector and a smoke alarm? What would you look for to tell them apart. How often do you change the batteries on your carbon monoxide detector? How about your smoke alarms?
10. What would you do if you found you had Carbon Monoxide in your home?
11. What are some things you can do to protect your household against Carbon Monoxide?		What else?
12. How many of you have seen or received information, in the past, on health risk from Carbon Monoxide? [Hand Check]		Did you find it helpful? Did it discuss risk from Carbon Monoxide in your home? Where did the information come from? Did it motivate you to do something particular? If so, what? Or, why not?
CO Prevention
13. What do you think it will take to motivate people to get their furnace and other oil or gas burning devices in their homes checked or serviced regularly?		Is there a particular message about Carbon Monoxide risk that you think people would more responsive to hearing? If given the choice, how would you like to receive information about Carbon Monoxide risk in the home? Is there a group, organizations, or individual that you think would be good at providing such information? Are there things, besides providing information, that could be done to make it easier for people to get their furnaces checked for Carbon Monoxide dangers?
14. What are some things can be done to promote the installation of Carbon Monoxide detector in homes?		What are some locations that would be good to provide information on Carbon Monoxide detectors?
Closing Questions
15. Based just on your participation in this discussion today, how many of you think you will do something to address Carbon monoxide risk in your homes? Okay, what about the things we talked about today makes you say that?
16. If could only share one message with others about Carbon Monoxide what would it be?