title: Using focus groups to develop health surveys: an example from research on social relationships and AIDS-preventive behavior.
abstract: Focus group data can inform the choice of words or phrases in a questionnaire, the construction of items to measure a given concept, the formation of new hypotheses, and the development of survey procedures. To date, few examples exist to show researchers in health behavior and health education how they might use focus groups for these purposes. This paper provides an example of group discussions that were held with gay and bisexual men on the topic of their experiences of the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic and illustrates the many ways that focus groups assist in questionnaire development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Portland State University, OR 97207-0751.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001727:Bisexuality; D017144:Focus Groups / Q000379:methods*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006716:Homosexuality; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires