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FINAL REPORT: NATIONAL CHILDREN'S STUDY FOCUS GROUPS
Citation:
LOBDELL, D. T. AND L. DIMITROPOULOS. FINAL REPORT: NATIONAL CHILDREN'S STUDY FOCUS GROUPS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-05/019, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
To better understand the issues affecting the recruitment and retention of expectant parents and others for the National Children's Study.
Description:
The primary objective of this work assignment was to develop a better understanding of
the issues affecting the recruitment and retention of expectant parents and other selected
stakeholders (parents, healthcare providers and community organizations) for the National
Children's Study. The tasks undertaken to achieve this goal included reviewing and revising a
moderator's guide; developing a site selection and recruitment plan; and conducting focused
discussions with groups of stakeholders in areas across the United States and analyzing the data
captured. The goal was to identify effective strategies and techniques that can be used to recruit
and retain participants in the NCS.
The focus groups were conducted at 10 sites across the United States to gather insights
from the following five stakeholder groups as described below:
" Expectant parents (10 groups)
" Parents of children without disabilities (2 groups: one with parents of children
aged 3 to 5 and one with parents of children aged 6 to 11)
" Parents of children with disabilities (2 groups: one with parents of children aged
3 to 5 and one with parents of children aged 6 to 11)
" Health care providers (2 groups: one pediatric and one obstetric)
" Community organization representatives (2 groups)
This report includes a complete qualitative analysis on the data obtained from the
focus groups and our recommendations for preferred strategies and techniques for
recruiting and retaining expectant mothers into the NCS.