The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health: Using Focus Groups to Inform Recruitment

Abstract

BackgroundRecruitment and retention of participants to large-scale, longitudinal studies can be a challenge, particularly when trying to target young women. Qualitative inquiries with members of the target population can prove valuable in assisting with the development of effective recruiting techniques. Researchers in the current study made use of focus group methodology to identify how to encourage young women aged 18-23 to participate in a national cohort online survey.ObjectiveOur objectives were to gain insight into how to encourage young women to participate in a large-scale, longitudinal health survey, as well as to evaluate the survey instrument and mode of administration.MethodsThe Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health used focus group methodology to learn how to encourage young women to participate in a large-scale, longitudinal Web-based health survey and to evaluate the survey instrument and mode of administration. Nineteen groups, involving 75 women aged 18-23 years, were held in remote, regional, and urban areas of New South Wales and Queensland.ResultsFocus groups were held in 2 stages, with discussions lasting from 19 minutes to over 1 hour. The focus groups allowed concord to be reached regarding survey promotion using social media, why personal information was needed, strategies to ensure confidentiality, how best to ask sensitive questions, and survey design for ease of completion. Recruitment into the focus groups proved difficult: the groups varied in size between 1 and 8 participants, with the majority conducted with 2 participants.ConclusionsIntense recruitment efforts and variation in final focus group numbers highlights the “hard to reach” character of young women. However, the benefits of conducting focus group discussions as a preparatory stage to the recruitment of a large cohort for a longitudinal Web-based health survey were upheld.

The developing world of DOHaD

“…A very large-scale prospective birth cohort of the National Children’s Study in the United States is recruiting 105 sites with ~100,000 children 23 . The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) or Women’s Health of Australia (WHoA) is another large-scale study, examining the health of over 50,000 Australian women 24 . NiPPeR trial (Nutritional intervention Preconception and during Pregnancy to maintain healthy glucosE levels and offspRing health) is another large-scale interventional study looking at effects of nutrients and probiotics before and during pregnancy 25 …”

Developing and evaluating Birthing on Country services for First Nations Australians: the Building On Our Strengths (BOOSt) prospective mixed methods birth cohort study protocol

“…If a participant becomes distressed, the interview will cease, and a referral process will be followed . The yarning circle data collection process will utilise the interview guide, however, discussion between participants will be facilitated which may generate more extensive exploration of women’s attitudes, views and experiences [ 60 – 62 ].…”

“…Qualitative semi-structured or narrative interviews/discussion groups may last about 1 hour. Focus groups will use the same semi-structured interview guide to encourage discussion, in order to lead to a richer understanding of staff/stakeholder perspectives [ 60 – 62 ].…”

Serial Focus Groups: A Longitudinal Design for Studying Interactive Discourse

“…Owing to these limitations, focus groups have been used primarily as methods for generating hypotheses (Merton et al, 1956), as well as auxiliary tools for validating instruments (Morrison, 1998; Vaughn et al, 1996) or interpreting findings obtained by other methods, such as surveys (Tavener et al, 2016), (semi-)structured interviews (Peek & Fothergill, 2009; Reay, 2004), observation (Munday, 2006), or textual analysis (Schrøder & Phillips, 2007). Only few, large-scale studies have inspired sufficient confidence to formulate theoretical conclusions based on focus group research alone (e.g., Gamson, 1992; Just et al, 1996).…”