Literacy and Smoking Risk Communications

Trial Information

Literacy and Smoking Risk Communications

Focus Groups:

If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to complete some questionnaires.
The questionnaires will ask about your age, income level, education level, and smoking
history. This information will allow researchers to look at whether these factors affect how
people understand smoking health risk information. The questionnaires will take about 15
minutes to complete. You will also complete a breath test. To complete the breath test, you
will blow into a tube that's attached to a machine about the size of a pocket computer. The
breath test is used to estimate the amount of tobacco smoke that you inhale.

You will participate in a focus group. During the focus group, research staff will be
present to help discuss and evaluate various smoking risk informational messages. You will
be asked to decide which messages may be most influential in terms of helping smokers to
quit smoking. The messages will include information about health risks of smoking, such as
smoking-related cancers, heart disease, lung disease, gum disease, fertility problems, and
other related topics.

The focus group session should last about 1 hour and 30 minutes.

The messages will then be selected by the study doctor and used to create pamphlets on the
risks of smoking. These pamphlets will be used to help people quit smoking.

Your participation on this study will be over once you have finished taking part in the
focus group. All focus groups will be audiotaped and the tape will be sent to an outside
company to be transcribed. No information that could be used to identify you such as your
name or date of birth will be provided to the outside company.

This is an investigational study. Up to 30 smokers will participate in the focus groups.
All will be enrolled at M. D. Anderson.

Pilot Testing and Main Study:

Many people can get and understand smoking health risk information. This study will look at
which types of smoking risk information may be most easily understood by different people.
Participants in this study will be asked to listen to and read 1 of 4 types of messages on a
computer. These messages will talk about and list some health consequences of smoking.

If you agree to take part in this study, you will be asked to complete several
questionnaires. These questionnaires will ask about your feelings and moods, thoughts about
smoking, risks of smoking, smoking history, and basic information, such as your age,
education level, and income level. The questionnaires will take about 30 minutes to
complete. You will also complete a breath test. To complete the breath test, you will blow
into a tube that's attached to a machine about the size of a pocket computer. The breath
test is used to estimate the amount of tobacco smoke that you inhale.

After you have completed these questionnaires and the breath test, you will complete several
computer-aided tasks. These computer-aided tasks will allow you to be able to read and hear
informational messages about health risks of smoking, such as smoking-related cancers, heart
disease, lung disease, gum disease, fertility problems, and other related topics. During
this study visit, you will also evaluate several recently designed informational messages on
the health risks of smoking. The computer-aided tasks and the evaluation should last about
30 minutes.

After evaluating these messages, you will be asked to complete additional questionnaires in
order for researchers to evaluate your responses to them. These questionnaires will ask your
opinion about the informational messages and the risks of smoking. These last set of
questionnaires should take about 30 minutes to complete. Your participation will be over in
this study once you complete the last set of questionnaires.

This is an investigational study. Up to 420 smokers will participate in this part of the
study. All will be enrolled at M. D. Anderson.