Table 1.
Individual interview sample questions
| Patient interviews |
| Explain to me when you first began to suspect that you were ill. |
| Under what circumstances and how did you obtained a diagnosis? |
| When the health care worker announced your screening/diagnostic results, what exactly did s/he tell you? |
| Did s/he explain its transmission? |
| Its consequences and treatment? |
| Did s/he refer you to another medical worker? Whom? |
| How did you respond to this announcement? |
| For you, what is hepatitis B? |
| If you had symptoms, what did you do to relieve or to treat them? |
| Do you have symptoms now? |
| Did you share your (screening or diagnostic) results with anyone? Whom? |
| Are you undergoing treatment currently? Why or why not? (Explain) |
| What consequences has your screening or diagnostic result had on your life? |
| Family members of patients living with HBV |
| Tell me about how you discovered that your family member had hepatitis B. (If family member was ill, explain steps taken to identify illness). |
| Before this result, had you heard of HBV? What did you know of it? |
| How did this family member explain to you his/her condition? |
| How do other people (other family members, friends, neighbors) understand his/her condition? |
| What term is used in your local language to describe HBV? |
| Does your family member have symptoms now? (Explain) |
| How has this diagnosis affected your family member's life? How has it affected your life? |
| Traditional practitioners |
| For which illnesses do you most commonly treat patients? |
| Do you specialize in a particular population or a particular illness? |
| How did you acquire your knowledge about illnesses and their treatments? |
| For you, how does a person fall ill? |
| Are you aware of any illnesses that are asymptomatic during childhood but manifest themselves later in life, during adulthood? |
| Have you heard of hepatitis or hepatitis B? What term(s) do you use to refer to it in your local language? |
| Explain to me how you diagnose someone with hepatitis B. |
| What treatment do you provide for someone with HBV? |
| Are there certain life practices that HBV patients should follow? |
| Medical workers |
| If you were to explain hepatitis B in very simple terms to a patient who knew nothing about it, how would you do so? What local language term(s) would you use? How would you describe its transmission, symptoms, screening and diagnosis, treatment and prevention? |
| Do you ever see cases in which you suspect hepatitis B? Why might you suspect HBV? What do you do in such a case? |
| How do you think that the patients you see understand HBV? |
| In your experience, what happens to patients after they receive a positive screening result for HBV? Do they follow through with other diagnostic tests? Why or why not? |
| Have you referred patients to a traditional medical practitioner? |
| Do you provide treatment of people diagnosed with HBV? |
| Are there certain life practices that HBV patients should follow? |
| What is the most difficult aspect of your medical work that pertains to HBV? |
HBV = hepatitis B virus.