SUPPORTING STATEMENT
HRSA Poison Help Campaign
A. Justification
Circumstances of Information Collection
This is a request for OMB approval of four qualitative voluntary focus groups under HRSA’s generic clearance. HRSA’s Poison Control Program will focus group test two Web video concepts each in Spanish and English to promote the Poison Help line with two target audiences: parents of children under 5 and caregivers of family members. This program, under P.L. 110-377, Section 1272, is mandated to educate the public and health care providers about the nationwide toll-free Poison Help line, which connects callers to one of the Nation’s 57 poison centers.
Executive Order 12862 directs agencies that "provide significant services directly to the public" to "survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services." This information collection is necessary to garner customer feedback to ensure the messages presented in the web videos resonate with the target audiences. In accordance with our commitment to prevent poisoning and increase poison center utilization, this information collection will provide insights into customer perceptions, experiences, and expectations, and focus attention on areas where changes in communication might improve products or customer understanding.
Purpose and Use of the Information
Improving program outreach and information materials requires ongoing assessment. As a vital part of its mission, the Poison Control Program produces and disseminates print and electronic materials for numerous audiences, including consumer and professional audiences. These materials are designed to anticipate customer needs and requirements, including providing information about poisoning prevention, and increasing accessibility to the Poison Help line.
The Poison Control Program is seeking to collect information to assess the web videos’ strengths and weaknesses, and to make improvements based on customer feedback. Feedback will include areas such as appropriateness of the materials and efficiency of delivery. Participants’ responses will be reviewed to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain poison control messaging and products.
The collection of this information will be qualitative and voluntary, targeting the opinions of two consumer groups, 1) parents of a child age 5 or under; and 2) caregivers of family members. Each of the groups will consist of no more than 9 participants. Copies of the qualitative instruments are attached.
Use of Improved Information Technology
The focus groups will not employ information technology but will be conducted in person. This is the most appropriate and cost-effective data collection methodology to obtain feedback from respondents, as the design has been limited to the smallest number of respondents possible. If respondents agree, focus groups will be recorded to verify notes, and later destroyed.
Efforts to Avoid Duplication
The responsibility for poison control is delegated to the HRSA Poison Control Program. To the best of our knowledge, no other entity within the Federal Government has collected or is planning to collect similar information. The proposed qualitative instruments have been reviewed carefully to avoid potential duplication.
Involvement of Small Entities
The focus groups will not have a significant impact on small businesses or other small entities.
Consequences if Information Collected Less Frequently
The focus groups are for a one-time project that will be used to test concepts for the Poison Help campaign’s web videos.
Consistency With the Guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)
The focus groups will be implemented in a manner fully consistent with 5CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
Consultation Outside the Agency
In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), on April 24, 2009, a 30 day notice was published in the Federal Register for HRSA’s generic clearance, OMB Control No. 0915-0212 (Vol. 74, Page 18726). No public comments were received.
Remuneration of Respondents
A $75 stipend will be provided to each participant in the 90 minute focus groups. These stipends are necessary to ensure respondents honor their commitment, and to ensure that appropriate numbers of respondents are recruited for each group.1 Because focus group recruiting firms base their recruiting charges upon a combination of difficulty of the recruit and adequacy of the incentives being provided, selecting an incentive level for a focus group is highly dependent upon past experience, the “going rate” in the cities where the groups will be held, and the difficulty of recruiting the desired segment of the population. For this project, the populations for these groups are being limited by race/ethnicity/country of origin, low income status, caregiver status of the respondent, and (in the Spanish groups) length of time in the US and limited English language capabilities. In determining a $75 incentive for this project, the contractor received bids from four recruiters in Houston and two in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. While three of the six firms recommended incentives of $100 or more for these groups, and the others recommended a minimum incentive or $85, one firm in Maryland and two in Texas said that they would be able to recruit the required respondents for $75 incentives.
Assurance of Confidentiality
To date, HRSA focus groups have not collected personally identifiable information from respondents. The collection of information will involve first names of respondents only. Participation is fully voluntary. Tape recordings of the focus groups will only be conducted if all respondents agree to the recording. Respondents will initially provide consent during the recruitment process (see question in screener). In addition, at the beginning of each group, the group will be reminded that they had been asked about having the discussion recorded and had given their consent at that time. Participants will once again be asked if they provide consent to be recorded. The recordings will be transcribed and used to verify notes for accuracy and then destroyed. Respondents will be assured that their participation in the focus group is completely voluntary and that they may choose to not answer any question or leave the group at any time if they are uncomfortable with the questions.
Questions of a Sensitive Nature
The only information of a sensitive nature that will be collected during the screening process is that of racial and ethnic identification, as two of the four focus groups will be conducted in Spanish with Spanish-speaking participants. No other questions of a potentially sensitive nature will be asked.
Estimates of Annualized Hour Burden
Respondents
Respondents will include four groups of nine adults over the age of 18. Participants will either 1) be the parent of a child age 5 or under; or 2) be a caregiver of a family member. Two focus groups will be conducted in Spanish and two focus groups will be conducted in English.
Annual burden estimates
The total respondent burden for the focus groups is estimated to be 72 hours. We expect a total of 36 respondents to participate in the Poison Help campaign focus groups.*
Type of Collection |
Number * of Respondents |
Responses per Respondent |
Total Responses |
Hours per Respondent |
Total Burden Hours |
Wage Rate |
Total Hour Cost |
Poison Help Campaign Focus Group Participants |
48 |
1 |
48 |
1.5 |
72 |
$50/hr |
$3,600 |
Total |
48 |
1 |
48 |
1.5 |
72 |
$50/hr |
$3,600 |
*Twelve respondents will be recruited for each group in order to ensure that there are nine participants in each group. If more than nine people arrive for a group, respondents 10-12 are paid the incentive promised to them and then sent home.
Planned frequency of information collection
This is a one-time project.
Estimates of Annualized Cost Burden to Respondents
The only associated cost to respondents is their time to provide the requested information.
Estimates of Annualized Cost to the Government
The estimated annual cost to the government is $32,620.40, which includes other direct costs of $22,124 (rental of focus group facilities – $3,950; video recording-$395; transcription services – $1,679; recruitment –$8,768; Spanish-speaking moderator/qualitative researcher – $3,950; stipends for participants – $1,382); travel - $2,000; and labor of $10,496.40. Labor costs include 50 hr @ $136.20/hr, 20 hr @74.55/hr, and 15 hr@146.36/hr.
Change in Burden
Not Applicable. This is a new activity under HRSA’s generic clearance and will be included in the total burden currently approved by OMB under OMB Control No. 0915-0212.
Plans for Analysis and Timetable of Key Activities
The focus groups will be conducted in May 2013. TMN staff will prepare, organize, consolidate and analyze the data from the focus groups. The TMN project staff will review the narrative information from the tape recordings and prepare a descriptive summary of findings. The findings will be used in the development of the Poison Help campaign only. The contents of the summary will not be shared with the general public in any form.
Exemption for Display of Expiration Date
No exemption is being requested. The expiration date will be displayed.
Certifications
This information collection activity will comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
1 Krueger, Richard A. A Practical Guide for Focus Group Research (2009), p.77. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 2009. Print
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Lynn Halverson |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-30 |