fast track for mini focus group

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB#: 0925-0648 Exp., date: 06/30/2024)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Mini Focus Groups to Garner Feedback to the National Institute on Aging’s Advance Care Planning Conversation Guide

PURPOSE:

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is seeking to test the understanding and resonance of their draft Advance Care Planning Conversation Guide (ACP Conversation Guide) among its intended target audience. To do so, NIA and their contractor will conduct five 90-minute virtual (online) focus groups with three to four adults aged 50 and older. During the focus group sessions, participants will receive the ACP Conversation Guide and spend time looking at sections of the guide while providing their reactions and feedback. Focus group findings will inform updates and enhancements to the ACP Conversation Guide; and ultimately ensure the resource is clearly communicating its information to its intended audience.

Upon Office of Management and Budget approval, recruitment and implementation of these focus groups will occur over a maximum of four weeks. More specifically:

• A professional recruitment vendor will screen and recruit 20 total participants within a two-week period.

• NIA’s contractor will then conduct focus groups over a one- to two-week period. No more than two focus groups will occur per day.

Upon the conclusion of the focus groups, NIA’s contractor will analyze and summarize focus group findings; and provide actionable recommendations for updating the ACP Conversation Guide.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

Respondents will include up to 20 men and women representatives from the general population who are aged 50 and older.

More specifically, our professional recruitment vendor will seek to recruit the following:

• Up to four total participants from each of the following racial groups:

  • Black or African American

  • Asian

  • White

  • American Indian or Alaska Native as well as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

  • Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 

• Up to four participants of Hispanic or Latino origin.

One key goal of the project is to ensure the final version of the Advance Care Planning Conversation Guide resonates across races and ethnicities. Segmenting the focus groups by race/ethnicity (e.g., holding 5 smaller groups versus 1 larger focus group) will enable the project team to appropriately explore the Advance Care Planning Conversation Guide from the perspective of cultural relevance—ensuring the final version takes into account feedback across various cultures. This approach will also provide insights to help guide any future content based on the guide (for example, web content translated into Spanish) as well as tailored promotional strategies to each respective group once it is ready to be disseminated.

Across groups we will aim to recruit a mix of gender, age, ancestry, education, income, and geography, as possible.

This effort requires participants with varying reading and health literacy levels to read and respond to six unique sections of the ACP Conversation Guide, including descriptive content as well as worksheets and vignettes. Each focus group will last 90-minutes. This includes 10 minutes at the beginning to conduct introductions, confirm participants can access video and audio, and provide background on the session as well as 10 minutes at the end of the focus group to gather overall feedback and conclude the session. For the remaining 70 minutes participants will read six sections of the ACP Conversation Guide and the discussion facilitator will solicit participant feedback using a semi-structured moderator’s guide. It should also be noted that average reading rates are around 250 words per minute (1 page per 2 minutes), thus the 70 minutes allotted ensures sufficient time for participants to read the various sections of the material without feeling “rushed.”

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

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

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

[X] Focus Group [ ] Other: ______________________

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: Jordan Broderick, email: jordan.broderick@nih.gov

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 [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

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

We propose providing an incentive to all focus group participants of $75. Research has shown improved participation in qualitative interviews with adults in the general United States population when given a monetary incentive in comparison to a nonmonetary incentive or no incentive.^[1] These focus groups aim to include harder to reach groups including adults aged 50 or older who are African American, Latino, Asian, and American Indian/Alaska Native. While participants will join focus groups via the internet, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed increased financial and caregiving burdens on many individuals, especially older adults. This higher incentive amount for remote participation reflects the length of this focus group (90 minutes), and expenses incurred by participants include childcare and any loss of income (e.g., if a participant has to take time off work to participate). This amount is consistent with amounts offered for similar research efforts (virtual qualitative research participation) and will help ensure timely recruitment and decrease no-show rates.^[3],[4]

ESTIMATED BURDEN HOURS and COSTS

Category of Respondent	Form Name	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Time per Response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
Individuals or Households	Screener	40	1	10/60	7
Individuals or Households	Moderator’s Guide	20	1	90/60	30
Totals		20	60		37

COST TO RESPONDENT

Category of Respondent	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate*	Total Burden Cost
Individuals or Households	37	$27.07	$1001.59
Totals			$1001.59

*Cite source per bls.gov if applicable

May 2020 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, United States. Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#00-0000.

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is $20,486.90

Staff	Grade/Step	Salary*	% of Effort	Fringe (if applicable)	Total Cost to Gov’t
Federal Oversight
Program Specialist	GS-13	$103,690	1%		$1,036.90
Contractor Cost					$19,450
Travel
Other Cost
Total					$20,486.90

* the Salary in table above is cited from https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2021/DCB.pdf

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? [ ] Yes [X] 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?

NIA will take a two-pronged approach to recruiting potential participants. All efforts include drawing potential participants from a non-probability convenience sample.

• NIA will use a professional recruitment vendor to identify, screen, and recruit potential participants for the five virtual focus groups using their existing opt-in database.

Administration of the Instrument

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

[X] 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

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

[1]^[1] Kelly, B., Margolis, M., McCormack, L., LeBaron, P. A., & Chowdhury, D. (2017).  What Affects People’s Willingness to Participate in Qualitative Research? An Experimental Comparison of Five Incentives.  Field Methods, 29(4), 333–350. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X17698958

[3]^[3] Rupert D et al., 2017.

[4]^[4] Kelley et al., 2017.

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