HCS_SSA_ATTACH 11_KI LETTER_SEPTEMBER 2011 FINAL for OMB

Healthy Communities Study

How Communities Shape Children’s Health

Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health

SSA Attachment 11

Ms. Debra Plum

Orchard Drive

Your Community, ID 12345-6789

Dear Debra Plum,

We are following up on our recent telephone call inviting you to participate in The Healthy Communities Study: How Communities Shape Children’s Health. You were selected to be in the study because you work in one of the 279 communities we are studying and you were identified as a Community Leader/Stakeholder and/or Director of a Community Program designed to impact healthy behaviors in children. Nationally, approximately 3,000 community members will participate in this study and your participation is crucial to understanding your community’s activities and resources in this area.

Your participation means taking about 50 minutes to be interviewed by our research team. A member of our team has scheduled the following date and time with you for this in-person/ telephone interview:

DATE: DAY, DATE, MONTH, 20XX

TIME: XX:XX PM ET

LOCATION: IN PERSON LOCATION OR REMOTE FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION

Here is some background on this landmark study.

• The purpose of The Healthy Communities Study is to see what programs and policies in communities across the United States help children lead healthy lives and to examine how these programs have changed over time and what associations there have been on children’s health. This study is being conducted by Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation and is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is the largest evaluation of its kind ever funded.

• A member of our research staff will meet you in person to conduct a structured interview. The interview will be about your community in general as well as your knowledge of and perceptions about various community level programs designed to impact healthy behaviors in children.

• We want to collect any documents you can provide to help us understand how the programs have evolved and the impact they have had on your community.

• In one or two years in the future, we will ask you to answer similar questions as the in-person visit but through a web or telephone survey. The questions will be similar to those you answered during the in-person visit.

Our study team will ensure your information stays private and secure. All study staff members are required to complete trainings on keeping your information safe. Study laptops and equipment are password protected. Your information will be stored in a locked building with access limited to authorized study team members only and study data forms will only have your study identification number on it. Final study results will be published on groups only. No individual information will be included. No individual in this study will be able to be identified.

We want you to know that it is important for you to participate because it will help researchers understand what programs in the community help children stay healthy. The results of this study could help improve existing and future programs for children across the United States.

After the in-person visit you will receive a gift worth $10 as a token of our appreciation for your participation.

When you complete the follow-up web or telephone questions in a few years, we will mail you another gift worth $10. As an additional thank you for your participation in this study, at the end of the study, you will get a summary report of the study results for all communities.

Thank you for your commitment to helping your community and for your participation!

For questions about the study please contact: Dr. Howard Fishbein, Study Director,

Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation at 703-248-1647.

Sincerely,

[Signature] [Signature]

S. Sonia Arteaga, Ph.D. Howard A. Fishbein, Dr. PH

Project Officer Study Director

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Battelle Memorial Institute

National Institutes of Health

The Healthy Communities Study is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, including primary funding by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, with additional support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Cancer Institute, and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. Additional collaborators include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research Partners for the study include the University of South Carolina, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Kansas, and Examination Management Services, Inc..

This master version of the key informant informational letter contains shaded wording indicating where sentences or phrases will differ as appropriate according to the type of community and type of interview that has been scheduled (in-person or remote).