Start and anticipated finishing date: 2019 - 2022

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Funding details: This project is funded by the Australian Research Council, through a scholarship that is part of a larger grant. The grant aims to reduce health disparities in CaLD populations, regarding HIV, STIs and BBVs.

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Project team: Nang Nge Nge Phoo (Curtin University), Associate Professor Alison Reid (Curtin University), Dr Roanna Lobo (Curtin University), and Dr Daniel Vujcich (Curtin University).

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Background: Among people living with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in Australia, 38% are from CaLD groups born in North-East and South-East Asia. Gaps exist in the available information related to HBV knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) in these populations. Previous surveys that focus on HBV KAP in these populations used face-to-face interview and self-administered paper survey techniques. These strategies are associated with barriers such as social desirability bias, interviewer bias, cost/time for translation and interpretation, spoken-only languages, translation quality, and variable literacy levels. These barriers could be overcome by the use of audio records and pictures.

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Project overview and aims: The current study will develop an audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) survey tool with pictures illustrating survey questions and response options. The study will assess the acceptability of this mode of administration by the population which uses several languages, and of which a proportion has language barriers or limited literacy. The hepatitis B knowledge, attitudes and practices survey will be administered among the people born in Myanmar and living in Perth by three modes of administration, including ACASI with illustrated pictures. The quantity and quality of data obtained by ACASI with pictures will be compared to those obtained by face-to-face interviews or self-administered paper survey

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Objectives:

• To adapt a survey questionnaire used in previous surveys which assessed knowledge, attitudes and practices of hepatitis B transmission and prevention

• To test the face validity of the survey questionnaire with a subset of the target population

• To develop audio-visual aids based on the revised questionnaire

• To review the audio-visual aids with a subset of the target population

• To build an audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) survey tool with illustrated pictures

• To test user acceptance of the ACASI tool with illustrated pictures with a subset of the target population

• To document the process of developing the ACASI survey tool with illustrated pictures, including lessons learned

• To administer a hepatitis B KAP survey among Myanmar community in Perth by three modes of administration: (i) ACASI with illustrated pictures, (ii) face-to-face interviews, and (iii) self-administered paper surveys

• To compare single-item completion rates of sensitive and non-sensitive questions, and quality of responses to sensitive questions between data collected by an ACASI survey tool with illustrated pictures and data collected by face-to-face interviews or self-administered paper survey

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Project impacts: The findings will add more evidence to the literature around comparison of modes of survey administration, specifically for migrants and surveys of sensitive issues. The findings will suggest the mode(s) of administration enabling people with limited literacy and language barriers to take part in surveys of socially discriminable behaviours. The findings will inform whether migrants with limited literacy or who use different dialects can take part in the ACASI survey with audio tracks in most commonly used languages in source and receiving countries, complemented with pictures. The study will contribute to the engagement of vulnerable populations in public health research.

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