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USE OF FOCUS GROUPS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RESEARCHER
Citation:
Lobdell, S. Gilboa, P Mendola, AND B. Hesse. USE OF FOCUS GROUPS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RESEARCHER. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH. National Environmental Health Association, Denver, CO, 67(9):36-42, (2005).
Impact/Purpose:
This paper describes what value focus groups have for the environmental health researcher and provides information and resources for their conduct
Description:
Qualitative research techniques are often under-utilized by the environmental health researcher. Focus groups, one such qualitative method, can provide rich data sets for study planning and implementation, risk perception, program and policy research, and exploration into future research direction as well as clarification of research results. This paper describes what value focus groups have for the environmental health researcher and provides information and resources for their conduct. Examples from the literature are incorporated to demonstrate the effective use of focus groups in a variety of environmental health research settings. Yet, there is clearly room for an increased application of this and other qualitative research methods in environmental health research.