Project Cover Memo

DATE: September 6, 2012

TO: Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Through: Reports Clearance Officer, DHHS

Project Clearance Chief, NIH

Project Clearance Liaison, NCCAM

FROM: Shawn Stout

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)

SUBJECT: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Communications Program Planning and Evaluation—OMB Control Number 0925-0530, expiration date January 31, 2014

The staff of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Office of Communications plans to conduct formative research focus groups under OMB Control Number 0925-0530, expiration date January 31, 2014. NCCAM will conduct in-person focus groups to assess the information needs of health care consumers regarding complementary health practices and improve the general health information content on NCCAM’s Web site. Insights gathered on language/terminology used in the field, perception of information credibility, scientific messages communicated, as well as format and depth of content most useful for consumers will be used to alter modality- or condition-specific information on the NCCAM public Web site (nccam.nih.gov) to better meet the needs of this audience.

Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

NCCAM has developed a collection of over 100 online fact sheets/publications communicating content on a variety of complementary health practices and conditions for which complementary approaches may be used, or have been studied. The format for our standard family of online products was established several years ago and has provided a way to consistently deliver our messages. However, the ever-evolving informational needs of consumers, the changing channels through which consumers receive health information—Web, social media, and mobile devices, and changes in the focus of NCCAM’s research portfolio, have led to a need to determine if the language used, scientific messages communicated, and the depth and format of the content in our information products meet the needs of the audience and support the research focus of NCCAM.

Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

These in-person focus groups will help us assess terminology, credibility, messages, and utility of our information products. Using respondents’ feedback, we will alter our online materials to better respond to the information needs of consumers.

We will recruit up to 30 respondents for three in-person focus groups of 8-10 people each: two groups of adult women (broken down by age, 18-44 and 45+) and one group of adult men (ages 18+). NCCAM will recruit participants through a professional focus group facility that is accustomed to recruiting participants and adheres to the Marketing Research Association’s code of ethics on data collection and keeping personal information private. Since we are asking each focus group participant to volunteer up to 2 hours of their time, we would like to offer an incentive of $50/person.

Findings will be used by NCCAM for program planning purposes and may be published or otherwise shared externally.

Estimates of Burden Hours and Costs

Type of Respondents	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Average Time per Response (in hrs.)	Annual Hour Burden	Respondent Cost
Consumers	30	1	2.	60	$0