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Appendix A

Health Numeracy Focus Group Guide

English Version

(The moderator will welcome the participants)

Opening, Introductory, and Transition Questions

  1. Please tell us your name and something that you enjoy doing in your free time.
  2. What are some of the ways that you use numbers in your everyday life?
  3. Think back to the last time you made took a medication, spoke with a doctor, or made a decision about your health. Can you think of a way that you used numbers in that situation?

Key Questions

  1. How do you use numbers in your day to day health care?
  1. In taking medications?
  2. In following directions?
  3. In making appointments?
  4. In following your lab tests?
  5. Other?
  1. How do you use numbers in communicating with your doctor?
  2. To talk about your risk of health problems?
  3. To talk about how serious a health condition is?
  4. To try to help you in making a health decision?
  5. Other?
  1. Is it sometimes hard for you to understand the numbers used by doctors?
  1. Do numbers sometimes help you to understand what your doctor is telling you?
  1. Many different words are used to talk about numbers in health. I’m going to list some words that are often used with numbers in health and then have you comment on what they mean to you.
  • Medical statistics
  • Risk
  • Probability
  • Probably
  • Odds
  • Chance
  • Likely
  • Unlikely
  1. What do you think makes a good medical study?
  2. What information do you want your doctor to tell you about a medical study
  3. Do you like to hear about the numbers, or medical statistics, from a study?
  4. If a doctor tells you that a new medicine is better than an old medicine, do you want to know how much better it is?
  5. Would you like the doctor to use numbers to tell you how much better it is?
  1. When a doctor tells you about the expected results from a medication or treatment, do you want them to tell you exactly how certain or uncertain they are about that result?
  2. For example, “On average this medicine decreases your cholesterol by 20 points but it could be anywhere between 0 and 40 points”,
  3. What do you think causes uncertainty in the results of scientific studies?
  1. How do you feel about the doctor using numbers when he or she talks to you about your health? (The moderator may suggest the following emotions to encourage discussion)
  2. Fear
  3. Confidence
  4. Trust
  5. Distrust
  6. Confusion
  7. Annoyance
  8. Satisfaction
  9. Anxious

12. How do you feel when the doctor uses numbers to tell you about studies in medicine? (The moderator may suggest the following emotions to encourage discussion).

  1. Fear
  2. Confidence
  3. Trust
  4. Distrust
  5. Confusion
  6. Annoyance
  7. Satisfaction
  8. Anxious

Ending Questions

13. Overall, what do you think are the most important ways that numbers can be used in health care?

14. Overall, what do you think are the most difficult aspects, for you, on using numbers in health care?

(At this point the moderator may give a summary of the discussion to highlight key points)

15. Is this an adequate summary of the discussion? Did we miss anything that was important to the topic?

(At this point the moderator will thank the participants)

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