Form Approved
OMB No: 0920-1169
Exp. Date: 03/31/2020
Development of CDC’s Let’s Stop HIV Together Social Marketing Campaign for Consumers
Attachment 3k: Exploratory HIV Communication and Awareness
Focus Group Guide
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Attachment 3k: Exploratory HIV Communication and Awareness Focus Group Guide
Welcome
Thank you for coming today. Your participation is very important. I’m _______ and I’m from RTI, a non-profit research organization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is sponsoring this research. The purpose of this focus group is to hear your views and opinions on important health topics concerning HIV/AIDS. Your insights are very important to us and your time today is appreciated. We will have about 1 hour for our discussion.
Before we begin, I want to review a few ground rules for our discussion.
Most importantly, there are no right or wrong answers. We want to know your opinions and what you think 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.
You have probably noticed the microphones in the room. They are here because we are audio taping. I want to give you my full attention and not have to take a lot of notes. At the end of our discussion, I have to write a report and 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 and take notes so that your opinions are accurately captured. However, your identity and anything you personally say here will remain secure to the extent allowable by law. Your name, address, and phone number, which only the facility knows, will not be given to anyone and no one will contact you after this focus group is over.
There may be some sensitive questions asked during this discussion. If at any time you are uncomfortable with my questions, you can choose not to answer. Simply let me know that you prefer not to answer.
Be sure to only use first names during the discussion. Please do not use your last name. Also, if you bring up a friend or other person you know as an example in our discussions, please do not use their last name either. So, whenever you mention a name, it should only be a first name and never a last name.
Please turn your cell phone or beeper to vibrate or silent mode. The focus group will last no more than 1 ½ hours.
If you need to go to the restroom during the discussion, please feel free to leave, but please return as soon as possible.
Do you have any questions before we begin?
Warm-up
Before we begin our discussion, let’s spend a little time getting to know one another.
Please tell me your first name and an interesting fact about yourself.
Community
Sometimes people refer to groups of people who have certain things in common as communities. They may have things in common like race, age, gender, location, beliefs, culture or values. Examples of communities could be the black community, gay community, online community, or the church community.
Do you see yourself belonging to a particular community(ies)?
[If yes] Which community(ies)?
[If not mentioned] Is there also an [X] community? If so, do you feel as though you are a part of that community?
HIV Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes, Belief
Do you ever think about HIV? Do you ever worry about getting HIV?
What do you think or worry about?
Do you think that people in your community worry about getting HIV? Tell me more about that.
How common do you think HIV is in your/the [insert specific community from Question 2] community? Why do you say that?
Is HIV a problem in your geographic area (e.g., neighborhood, city, county)? What about among your friends or in your social circles?
How does someone get HIV? What things put someone at risk?
How can a person prevent getting HIV? If so, how?
Who should get tested for HIV? How often should people get tested?
What questions do you have about HIV? That is, what would you like to know more about?
Learning how it’s transmitted
Preventing transmission
Ways it affects the body
How it can be treated
Difference between HIV and AIDS
Difference between treatment and cure
Other?
Now I’m going to mention some sexual activities, and I would like you to tell me how risky you think each is for getting or giving HIV: Very risky, somewhat risk, or not risky. Also tell me why you think that for each behavior.
Deep kissing
Receptive anal sex with a condom
Receptive anal sex without a condom
Mutual masturbation
Receptive oral sex (giving a blow job) with a condom
Receptive oral sex (giving a blow job) without a condom
Oral sex on a woman
Insertive anal sex with a condom
Insertive anal sex without a condom
Vaginal sex with a condom
Vaginal sex without a condom
[Insert other behaviors here]
Have you heard that HIV rates are higher in the [insert specific population] population than in other populations in the U.S.?
Where have you heard this?
Do you believe this to be true?
Are there certain groups within the [insert specific population] population that are at higher risk for HIV than others? What groups? Why do you say/think that?
Are there certain groups that get the blame for spreading HIV? Which groups? Why is that?
What are some things that you think may be contributing to the HIV problem in the [insert specific community] community? What do you think about that?
How common do you think HIV is in your community?
Do you think HIV affects how people approach/think about sex? How?
Where does HIV fit in with other things people have to worry about in their lives?
How do people feel about the community’s/government’s response to HIV in the [insert specific community] community? Do you believe the government has your best interest at heart when dealing with HIV? What more should the government be doing?
Do you think people trust that they can get the care they need if they have HIV?
In general, how do people feel about someone who has HIV?
Do you think there’s discrimination against people with HIV generally? What about in your community?
[If necessary] Are people who are HIV positive thought of or treated differently than people who are HIV negative? Can you tell me more about that?
If you were to test positive on a future HIV test, would you be afraid that you would be thought of or treated differently? How might you be thought of or treated differently, and by whom?
[If necessary] How do you think your family would react if you tested positive? How about your friends? How about people you work or go to school with?
Thinking about your close circle of friends, would you describe them as being at high, medium, or low risk for getting HIV? Why do you say that?
Please give me an example/scenario of someone who is at high risk, medium risk, and low risk for HIV.
How would you describe your risk for getting HIV? Why do you say that?
Have you heard about [insert HIV prevention/risk reduction topic]?
What can you tell me about [insert HIV prevention/risk reduction topic]?
When you hear the word/term [insert word], what do you think of? Are there specific terms or feelings that you associate with [insert word from above]? If yes, what are they?
Tell me what you know about [insert topic].
Personal communications about HIV
Do you and your friends talk about HIV? If so, what do you talk about?
Besides your friends, who have you talked to about HIV? What did you talk about?
What are some advantages of talking about HIV with [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.]?
What are some disadvantages of talking about HIV with [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.]?
What makes it easy to talk about HIV with [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.]?
What makes it difficult to talk about HIV with [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.]?
Do you think your [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.] would be supportive of talking about HIV? Why or why not?
What are the strategies you use to talk about HIV with your [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.]?
How likely would you be to talk about HIV/AIDS with your [insert group: partners, friends, family members, clergy, healthcare providers, etc.] in the next week or so?
Will you bring up the issue of HIV/AIDS the next time you visit your healthcare provider? Why or why not?
Do you ever look up information about HIV online?
[If yes] Where do you look for information?
[If no] How do you find information about HIV?
Do you ever post or read about HIV on social networking sites? If yes, tell me a little more about that? [Probes: Which sites, what types of information have you posted/read, what did you think about what you read? Etc.]
Channels of Information
Have you ever sought out information on HIV/AIDS?
What type of information were you seeking?
Where did you look for the information?
Where would you turn first for information?
Have you ever received HIV/AIDS information at a health fair or other event? If so, what was the event? Where was it?
How would you feel about getting [insert HIV prevention strategy/risk reduction topic] information in the following places?
Community health clinic
Doctor’s office
Church
Health fair
Work
Sporting event
Other
What other places can you think of that would be convenient places to get information about HIV?
When it comes to getting HIV information, who are the people/organizations you are most likely to trust/listen to? What makes you say that?
Who or what groups are you least likely to trust/listen to? What makes you say that?
How would you like to get HIV information?
When and where would you be most receptive to getting this information?
How would you feel about receiving HIV information combined with information about other STDs or sexual health more generally? What makes you say that?
How important do you think it is to provide information on HIV to members of the [insert specific community] community, in particular?
What would be a good way to raise awareness among community members about risk factors or motivate them to protect themselves?
What recommendations do you have for getting more people to think about and protect themselves from HIV?
Where do you go to get answers to your health questions?
Who don’t you trust to give you health information? Why is that?
HIV-Related Health Communications
Have you seen any advertisements about HIV/AIDS? If so, where and what did they say?
Tell me about the last advertisement you saw about HIV. Where was it and what did it say?
What did you like about it?
What did you dislike about it?
Did this ad get you to do anything or think about doing anything in particular? What was that?
An advertising campaign may be created to promote [insert topic, behavior, or strategy]. The campaign would be created for [insert target population]. Let’s talk about how you think the ads should be created.
What kinds of things should the ads say?
What would be important to tell people who read or hear the ads?
What would you want to hear/read in the ads?
What kinds of pictures or graphics (e.g., infographics) would you like to see in the ads?
[If pictures of people mentioned] What do you think the people should look like? E.g., how old should they be? What about their gender? Or their race/ethnicity?
Should there be a celebrity endorsing the [insert action/goal]?
[If yes] Who would you suggest?
Would you look at the ad if it contained logos for [insert names of government organizations]? Why or why not?
Where would you expect to see the ad?
Where would it need to be so that you would pay attention to it?
How do you prefer to see health information presented?
In what form do you prefer health information to be presented? (E.g., posters, brochures, flyers, etc.)
What kinds of promotional items would you use?
Do you like the idea of having material to take with you into a doctor’s appointment or to take home?
Does getting information from a doctor’s office affect your likelihood of reading the information? Why or why not?
Internet Usage
Do you use the Internet?
How would you feel about getting information about HIV testing/prevention on these sites?
Blogs
Social networking sites
Hook up or dating sites
Other
To what extent would you trust HIV information posted on one of the sites you like to visit? Why do you say that?
Would you go to a website that helped you decide [insert specific topic]?
Would you use a CDC website for information on [insert specific topic]? What makes you say that?
Closing
Okay, we are pretty much out of time. Do you have any last thoughts?
Excuse me for one moment while I see if the people observing have any questions that I have not asked. I will be right back.
Thank you for your participation. There is a brochure for you to take with you if you would like. It has information about HIV/AIDS and locations where you can get further information. Have a good day/evening.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Poehlman, Jon |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-10-13 |