The use of focus group interviews in pediatric health care research.
OBJECTIVE
To review and synethize the research material on focus groups with children and adolescents and to provide guidelines for future development.


METHODS
Psychlit, Medline, and Cinahl electronic databases, as well as the reference lists of those articles consulted, were reviewed for information regarding focus groups with participants under the age of 18 years. Both empirical and methodological articles were part of this review.


RESULTS
We review the utility of focus groups for exploratory research, program evaluation, program development, and questionnaire construction or adaptation. Based on previous research, we provide guidelines for focus groups with children and adolescents and outline suggestions for future development.


CONCLUSIONS
There is evidence to suggest that focus groups are a valuable means of eliciting children's views on health-related matters, given an appropriate research question. However, empirical research is required in order to investigate systematically the effect of different processes and variables on the final outcome of focus group interviews.
Heary
Caroline M
CM
University College Dublin, Ireland. carolineheary@eircom.net
Hennessy
Eilis
E
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D017144:Focus Groups / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires