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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Smok Cessat. 2018 May 11;14(2):73–82. doi: 10.1017/jsc.2018.16

TABLE 1.

Focus Group Guide

Thematic Area Focus Groups Questions
Workplace Background/Construction Sites - Tell me about the construction site that you work on. How long have you been on this site and for how much longer do you expect to work here?
- When do you arrive at work? You know, are you right on time or do you get there early and hang out a little before you have to clock in?
- What do you usually do when you get a break? Do you stay on site? Go off site? How do you occupy your time when you have your break? I also understand that people sometimes skip their breaks.
- At the end of your shift, do you go home right away or do you hang out a little while and talk to other people that you work with?
- What do you usually do for your meals or lunch? Use the lunch truck? Bring your own? Go off site?
- Does your workplace offer special programs for its workers like health information, or any other programs? I want to know who provides your health and safety information. How does that work? What about any smoking cessation programs? Would you like it if they did offer programs for you? Education programs or health or whatever?
- At your worksite, are there rules about where you can and cannot smoke? What are they? Do people abide by them? Do you see a lot of people smoking on the job site? Do a lot of your coworkers smoke? About how many? Does it vary by the different job sites that you’ve worked?
- What about you? Do you smoke on the job site? Where do you smoke? Do you or the guys you work with smoke during lunch breaks? Do you usually smoke with coworkers? On a break?
- Do coworkers look down at you if you smoke?
- Would you say that there are more people who smoke at work, say, compared to where you live?
Thoughts on Cessation Treatments and Interventions - There are a lot of different ways to quit smoking that are helpful. Some people quit on their own and other people get help. The types of help that work are talking to a doctor or counselor, using the State Quitline, and using medication such as nicotine patch or Chantix. Have you tried any of these things to help you quit? What was useful? If you decided to quit again, which of these might you give another try?
- Would you be willing to talk to someone to help you quit? If so, what kind of a person do you think would be helpful to you? For example, a doctor? A nurse or counselor? A co-worker or friend who has been quit for a long time? A guy rather than a woman? Someone older than yourself? Who else?
- Would you want a face-to-face intervention? What about weekly meetings? Or would you prefer something on the telephone? What makes you want that type of intervention?
- If someone was helping you to quit smoking, how often would you want to talk to that person? Would you want reminders about not smoking or reminders to encourage you to stay smoke free? Like a telephone call or text message?
- Where would you like to have the intervention? Is this something that you want to do online, on the phone, or in person? Would you consider your workplace a suitable site to do an intervention? If someone could give you a quick one-on-one intervention at work would you be interested in quitting that way?
- Can you think of reasons that would make you stop using any of these quit aides to help you stop smoking? Like NRT gum or patches?
- Are there any reasons that you would not continue with a treatment or intervention for quitting smoking? For example, if you had to drive someplace to receive the intervention would that stop you from wanting to continue using it or if it was expensive… things like that. Can you think of things that might stop you from wanting to try that intervention?
Cessation Preferences for Hispanic/Latino Male Construction Workers and Openness to Quitting - Are there issues that should be considered when trying to help Hispanic construction workers quit smoking? Are certain approaches more or less likely to work for them? Why?
- Are there any cultural issues that should be considered, such as acculturation, cultural values-family, collectivism, machismo (men can smoke but women cannot), living situations, etc.
- Would you want your work site to help you quit smoking (e.g., having them fax a referral for you to quit to the QuitLine, provide the service on site during your lunch/breakfast break, provide NRT for free)?
- How interested are you in quitting in the near future (within the next month)? If not very interested: what would have to happen to make you interested? What if we could offer you some help to quit smoking, would you like to try?
- Would you be interested in quitting smoking if we could do a smoking cessation intervention at your work where it would be one-on-one and it could be during your lunch break? Why? (Cost effective? Because they smoked they understand how it feels to quit? Why not? If you are not sure, what are you uncertain about?
- If we had someone trained who went around on a lunch truck, would that be an effective way to help you quit smoking?