Technical Report - Donegal Traveller's Project

Health Survey Findings• cultural factors (breastfeeding rates, early marriages, large family size, concepts of health and healthbeliefs)• access to and use of health services (including GP consultation rates/hospital attendance rates)• use of prescribed medicines• use of cures• use of dental services/aural services• use of speech therapy services• use of gynaecology/maternity services (including family planning)• standard/type of accommodation and social environment• community involvement• sports and leisure activities.Outline of Process Used to Design and Pilot the Study Instrument• All potential questionnaire items were extracted from Traveller studies and national studyinstruments (such as the CSO, the SLAN studies, the Lifeways study, and INSIGHT ’07). Potential itemswere collated into a draft questionnaire, which was circulated to the study stakeholders, HSE andTravellers via the Traveller organisations, to assess their suitability for inclusion in the survey• A copy of the draft consultation questionnaire was also posted on the study website to facilitatewide dissemination• Feedback was documented on potentially suitable or unsuitable questionnaire items and itemswere deleted or new items were added, as appropriate• Questionnaire wording was changed to more culturally appropriate versions, as required• By the third round of consultation and feedback, the team had a draft paper instrument with amaximum 45-minute respondent time• The paper instrument was piloted with Travellers at local level, and changes were incorporated asrequired• Following consultation, the study questions underwent a final adaptation to Traveller terminologyand relevant images and pictures were developed and selected by Travellers in regional workshops,to ensure that the instrument reflected the rich oral-visual culture of Travellers• The questionnaire was then translated into an audiovisual electronic format on laptop computers,with a Traveller voice-over capturing the Traveller wording of questions• The computer designed instrument was piloted with Travellers• The questionnaire was finalised following this consultation process and the audio-visual instrument/laptop computers was disseminated among study co-ordinators to complete the final trainingsessions with their Traveller Peer Researcher teams• Final dress rehearsal successfully completed for quality assurance of data collection and data uploadprocess using modems53