Data Collecting Methods: Getting Down To Basics

This resource corresponds to Module 5.

Hi. My name is Carol Oliver. During my 15 years working in the field of prevention, I’ve conducted scores of focus groups. It’s the rare group that doesn’t yield at least one piece of unanticipated information. For example, I was once called in to work with the Massachusetts Immunization Program. We wanted to figure out why so many non-English speaking parents weren’t getting their children immunized. Focus groups quickly revealed the problem. We discovered that “immunization” sounded too much like “immigration.” Parents were afraid that having their children immunized might compromise their immigration status. Once the program changed its language and replaced the term “immunization” with “shots,” immunization rates among this population increased.

Carol Oliver is currently a Technical Assistance Specialist for CSAP’s Northeast CAPT. She is the former director of the Massachusetts Prevention Center of the North Shore.