Extract

Background and study aims: During the swine flu pandemic in 2009/10, the British Government used a large advertising campaign to ask members of the public to do several different things to help reduce the spread of illness. These included washing hands more often, taking medicines such as ‘Tamiflu’ if ill and, for some people, being vaccinated. To check how many people were doing these things and what impact their adverts were having, the Government and academic researchers conducted several telephone surveys during the pandemic. These surveys were very useful. However, because they had to be put together quickly, there was room for improvement in the questions that were asked. In this research, we will spend some time before the next pandemic thinking about what questions to ask in future surveys and checking that the questions make sense to members of the public. We will be conducting two, linked, studies. In the first, we will use a series of interviews with volunteers from the public to test out the wording for our new questions and check that they are clear and unambiguous. In the second, we will ask a professional market research company to conduct a telephone survey with randomly selected members of the public, to test whether our questions work during a normal flu season. By surveying the same members of the public at two time points, one week apart, we will be able to tell whether our questions result in the same answers when they are repeated. This is a good test of whether a particular question works properly. Who can participate? Anyone can participate in either study if they aged 18 or over and speak English fluently. People will also be able to complete our survey study in Welsh, if they prefer. What does the study involve? The “interview” study involves taking part in one interview that will last around one hour. This will be done over the telephone. During the interview, we will read out the questions that we have written for our new survey. The participant will answer the questions and also to explain why they have given that particular answer. For example, if we ask “How worried are you about catching flu on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very worried),” we would like to know where the participant puts themselves on that scale and also why. Sometimes, we will also ask a participant to repeat a question back to us, but in their own words. We will do this to check whether the question makes sense to them. We would also like participants to tell us if they spot any problems with a question, such as a piece of jargon that people might not understand or a question that seems vague or difficult to answer. Any feedback on the questions will be very welcome. In the “survey” study, the market research company will use a process called ‘random digit dialling’ to randomly select telephone numbers to call. People who answer the telephone will be asked if they are willing to take part in a survey concerning flu. If they are happy to proceed, they will be asked to answer our new questions about flu. They will then be called back one week later and asked to answer the same questions again. Each interview will take about 15 minutes to complete. What are the possible benefits and risks of participating? There are no major benefits or risks associated with taking part in either study. Because taking part in our cognitive interviews may be lengthy (around an hour), we will give participants in that study £20 as a thank you. Where is the study run from? King’s College London (UK) When is study starting and how long is it expected to run for? The study will start recruiting participants for the interviews on 1 October 2012. The interviews will take place over the space of two months. The telephone surveys will be run during January and February 2013. Who is funding the study? National Institute for Health Research (UK) Who is the main contact? G James Rubin [email protected]

Inclusion criteria

• Influenza

Links

• ictrp
• isrctn