Using Focus Groups to Develop a Text Message-Based Nutrition Education

ProgramKatherine E. Speirs (kspeirs@umd.edu)

Stephanie K. Grutzmacher (grutz@umd.edu)

Ashley Munger (mungerale@gmail.com)University of Maryland School of Public Health &University of Maryland Extension

2012 Priester National Extension Health ConferenceApril 10-12

Washington D.C.

Focus Groups • Purpose: to explore opinions, thoughts and feelings about an issue, program, product, or idea. • Group interview • Interactions between participants • Can be used at multiple stages of program planning • Needs assessment• Program development and refinement • Evaluation

Logistics• Recruitment• Purposive sampling • 6 – 10 participants• Incentives • Multiple groups

• Interview Guide• Degree of structure depends on purpose• Open-ended questions• What makes this poster interesting? Vs. Is this poster

interesting?

Logistics •Moderating• Keep discussion on topic while encouraging participants to interact freely• Make participants feel comfortable

• Space• Convenient and familiar for participants • Set-up for participant interaction (e.g., participants can see each other)• Set-up to allow for audio or video recording

Benefits

•Flexible•Efficient•Emphasizes group interaction•May capture the complexity of everyday life

Challenges

•Social conformity•Dull group• Individuals’ personalities•Dominating• Timid• Verbose• Irrelevant

•Generalizability

Text2BHealthy

•Text message-based nutrition education and physical activity promotion program •Parents are sent 2-3 messages a week

•Evaluation• Pre and post-test paper surveys•Questions sent via text message

Participants

•3 focus groups (between 5 and 10 participants in each group)•Low-income mothers •Recruited through existing FSNE classes

Questions

Program Design • Feasibility of using text messages with low-income parents• Frequency of messages• Language for text messages•Marketing materials

Evaluation • Survey length, layout, and content

Which texting style do you like better?

1. Strawberries sale @ Giant 2moro

2. Strawberries are on sale at Giant tomorrow

Follow up questions: Why do you prefer the one that you selected?

Is there anything that is hard to understand about either message?

What did we learn?

How did we use what we learned?

Text4Healthor

Text2BHealthy?

Program Design

•Text-isms (LOL, ttyl)•Multiple cell phones•Familiarity with text message programs

Evaluation

•Reduce or eliminate skip patterns•Restart numbering at the beginning of each section•Shorten the survey•Use color printing for photographs

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Human Resources and the University of Maryland.

We would also like to thank the parents who participated in our focus groups, the FSNE educators who helped us recruit our participants, and Jessica DiBari for her comments on this presentation.