Public attitudes and opinions have always been important in health research. For example, many research studies use a community-based approach to inform the outcomes and design, while other studies include a member of the public as a citizen scientist. However, as genetics and technology continue to grow within health research so does the difficulty. Making sure research participants are educated about new advancements in health care is important to gather quality attitudes and opinions.

Fig. 1. Deliberative Discussion Focus Group Approach

We developed a way to educate participants prior to asking them questions during a group discussion called a focus group. Research participants watch a multimedia video that explains as well as visually shows the topic we are interested in talking about during the group. An expert attends the group to answer questions from participants about anything they did not understand or would like more information after the multimedia presentation. Then another individual leads the group discussion. Participants are able to ask questions of the expert at any time during the group (see Figure 1). The addition of a multimedia presentation and an expert to the group experience creates a more meaningful experience for data collection because participants can seek more information and also hear what questions other research participant may have about the topic.

我们使用这种方法教育的参与者in several federal funded research studies about genetic testing. For example, we used this approach to educate participants prior to asking their opinions about newborn screening, the largest application of genetic testing in the United States. We also used this approach to gather public opinion on how population-based pilot research for new tests for newborn screening should be conducted.

Two important outcomes from using this deliberative discussion approach within focus groups have occurred. This approach gives additional insight about what type of questions the public may have about a topic and how their opinions may change after talking about it. This is achieved by:

1) The ability to analyze participant questions separately from their opinions; and

2)The ability to ask, if at all, how their opinions changed after watching the video, talking with an expert and engaging in a group discussion.

Promoting learning allow participants to hear and discuss issues that may not have arisen without someone else first asking the question. Individuals do not make healthcare decisions alone, but they often discuss them with friends or family prior to the final decision. Deliberative discussion focus groups allow this type of discussion about pros and cons of a decision to be heard. The more educated and informed the research participant, the better quality data for health research.

Publication

Deliberative Discussion Focus Groups.
Rothwell E, Anderson R, Botkin JR
Qual Health Res. 2015 Jun 15

Read offline:

Related Articles:

	Stimulating nursing students’ interest in community care…Despite increased healthcare extramuralisation, related to increased elderly patients living at home, most nursing students still see the hospital as career favourite. This is problematic, because of the widespread labour-market…
	A systematic mapping study of design and deployment models…In the traditional system of computing, all that is required in terms of applications, runtime, operating system and networking are provided by the organization. In cloud computing, various levels of…
	Can reports of a homicide committed by a person with…Schizophrenia is a neurological disorder in which a combination of hallucinations and delusions lead the person to interpret reality abnormally. On May 29th 2009, a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia killed…
	Using AI to improve the quality and quantity of hand washing…Poor quality hand hygiene has been identified as the main contributor to the spread of hospital acquired infections. In the USA, they affect 2 million patients of which nearly 90,000…
	WRGSD: improving reliability and efficiency for coastal…Water-quality response grid-based sampling design (WRGSD) using optimization and multi-factors assessment can reliably detect a variety of the impact of human activities. The sampling design are optimized by clustering and…
	Your pharmacist will see you now!Public perception of pharmacists might be limited to dispensing medications. However, pharmacists are trained to deliver patient care to help patients improve their health-related outcomes and achieve their goals. Recognizing…