Show Me: INTERVIEW GUIDE

Key Informants
One of the best ways to assess the need of a priority population, especially for coalitions with limited time and resources, is to interview key informants from the community groups for which a health or health risk disparity has been identified. These informants might already be in your coalition, or someone else respected and trusted in the community may have recommended them to you. Here’s a guide to interviewing key informants. You will need to select the questions that are appropriate for the person you are interviewing, paying special attention not to violate the cultural norms of the priority population they represent. Also, think about how these questions might be employed using other information gathering methods, such as focus groups and surveys.

Interview Guide

1. Assessment of Need

   a. How serious of a problem is tobacco use in your community?
   b. Do you see a need for tobacco education and prevention programs for the community in this area? (Probe for reasons for the answer given.)
   c. In your experience, how do members of your community start using tobacco products? At what age? What reasons do they give to you?
   d. How frequently and what types of events are tobacco companies sponsors of community programs and gatherings?
   e. Do you think the community has and understanding of, and concern for, the issue of second-hand smoke? Do you think is a desire to eliminate exposure to second-hand smoke? Do you have suggestions on how to do this?
   f. Where does appropriate tobacco use fall among the priorities for your community and its organizations? (Probe for reasons for the answer given. Identify and prioritize the competing priorities.)

2. Current Planning and Programming

   a. Does your community/organization have any tobacco-related programs in place? Can you identify them? What issues do they address (youth access, cessation, second-hand smoke)? Please describe the programs, their target audiences and their perceived effectiveness.
   b. Did you develop these programs yourself? If so, did you base them on an existing model? Which one? Has the program(s) been formally evaluated? What were the results? Which areas were more effective? Which areas were not effective (be sure to ask about both process and outcomes)?
   c. If you did not develop these programs, do you see a need for them? From what you know, what programs might be effective, and what might the barriers be to implementation (funding, community interest etc.)?

3. Potential Solutions

   a. In general, what types of linkages and relationships might effectively reach members of your community, to connect them with tobacco-related programs and services?
   b. What organizations or groups within your community should be developing programs to meet these needs? Are you, or your organization, willing to play a role? What role, if any, should state agencies play?
   c. Can you describe a tobacco-related program that would best meet the needs of your community? What approaches would it take? Who would play a role?

4. Wrap Up

   a. Is there anything that you would like to add to the information you have given me? Is there anything I haven’t asked about that you would like to discuss?

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