Request for Approval - screener

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 0920-1027)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Telephone Interviews to Screen Potential Focus Group Participants for Exploratory Research and Message Pre-Testing Among Baby Boomers

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the proposed telephone interviews is to identify eligible participants for focus groups to explore knowledge and attitudes about Hepatitis C among Americans born 1945-1965 (or baby boomers), and to pre-test proposed campaign messages for CDC’s Know More Hepatitis campaign. Baby boomers account for approximately 75% of people living with Hepatitis C. Both CDC and the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommend testing people born from 1945-1965 for Hepatitis C. CDC developed the Know More Hepatitis campaign to promote the new recommendation and works with grantees around the country, including the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Coordinators and Hepatitis C Community grantees, to help implement the campaign. Testing identifies people living with Hepatitis C, which can lead them to get into medical care and treatment. New and improved treatments can now cure the disease for many people, and if CDC’s recommendation to test baby boomers is fully implemented, an estimated 120,000 lives can be saved over the next 10-20 years. This effort will help determine whether new proposed campaign materials are understandable and motivate participants to talk to their doctors about getting tested for Hepatitis C. CDC is sponsoring this effort, which is intended to improve the current campaign and ensure high quality of information offered to the public.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The focus group respondents will be selected based upon telephone screening for eligibility, and because of their potential for experiencing campaign messages and materials in one of the designated six cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston and Seattle. These cities represent areas in which CDC and CDC grantees work to educate baby boomers about hepatitis C, as well as cities that have a focus group facility skilled in recruiting baby boomers. The main criteria for the initial screening respondents will be that they live in one of the six cities listed above, are born from 1945- 1965; have no personal or family history of liver disease or hepatitis; have at least a high school education; have never been tested for Hepatitis C and see their primary care doctor at least once every two years. As such, the respondents represent either current or potential customers of the Know More Hepatitis campaign.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X ] Other: Telephone interview
to screen participants

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name:___Cynthia Jorgensen, DrPH_____________________________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X ] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [X ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [X ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden
Individuals or Households Screener	275	10 minutes	46 hours
Totals	275	10 minutes	46 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $750.

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [X ] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

CDC has hired Marketing Resources International, a market research firm, to conduct the focus groups in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston and Seattle. Participants for the focus groups will be recruited from lists of volunteers that have registered with the focus group facility listed below. The focus group facility maintains the proprietary database of volunteers and does not share names with anyone outside, including CDC. In addition, CDC viral hepatitis grantees will be asked to help identify potential participants who might be interested in participating in the focus groups. To maintain privacy of their clients, CDC grantee staff will provide telephone contact information on volunteering for the focus group to clients that seek services from grantee during a two week period prior to the beginning of the telephone screening process. Interested clients will be asked to contact the focus group facility and register for potential inclusion in the group. Potential participants will be determined from newly registered individuals and from their database of baby boomers.

The focus group facility will contact potential participants by telephone and screen them for eligibility. Eligible respondents will be asked to volunteer for a focus group at a predetermined time and told that the group will be approximately two hours in length. The purpose of the group is to talk about Hepatitis C and to provide feedback on the campaign materials. This will allow CDC to change and improve the proposed educational messages. Quota sampling will be used to recruit 216 individuals of various ethnic groups for a total of 24 focus groups in 6 cities. It is estimated that approximately 275 people will be contacted in order to fill the groups. Potential participants will be asked questions to determine if they meet the desired criteria for inclusion in the focus group. The criteria include: male and females born from 1945 to 1965, have no personal or family history of liver disease or hepatitis, have at least a high school education, have never been tested for Hepatitis C and see their primary care doctor at least once every two years. The screening instrument is attached. Meeting these criteria means that these respondents represent either current or potential customers of the Know More Hepatitis campaign.

Focus Group Locations	Number of Groups
Baltimore
Observation Baltimore 5520 Research Park Drive, Baltimore, MD 21228	4
Boston
Focus on Boston 30 Rowes Wharf, Boston, MA 02110	4
Chicago
Schlesinger Associates Chicago 625 N Michigan Avenue, Suite 2600, Chicago, IL 60611	4
Denver
INGATHER Research & Sensory 1614 15th St. Suite 100, Denver, CO 80202	4
Houston
Schlesinger Associates Houston 1455 West Loop South, Suite 500, Houston, TX 77027	4
Seattle
Consumer Opinion Services Inc. 1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite #525, Seattle, WA 98101	4

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[X ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X ] Yes [ ] No

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