Sensitive Health Topics With Underserved Patient Populations: Methodological Considerations for Online Focus Group Discussions.

ABSTRACT: Online focus group discussions provide an anonymous environment to assess sensitive, health-related experiences that may be difficult to discuss utilizing traditional face-to-face modalities, particularly for marginalized populations such as female-to-male trans masculine (TM) transgender individuals. This article reviews the history, advantages, and disadvantages of online focus groups, with an emphasis for research about sensitive issues with stigmatized, rare, and/or geographically dispersed patient populations. The article then evaluates the success of online focus group discussions as a case study using data from four asynchronous online focus groups conducted between September 2015 and February 2016 that explored topics related to sexual health care access with U.S. TM adults ( N = 2

SUBMITTER: Reisner SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5758419 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature