Skip to main content

Table 2 Summary of cost and feasibility of barrier identification work for projects 1–3

From: Cost and feasibility: an exploratory case study comparing use of a literature review method with questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to identify barriers for a behaviour–change intervention

Project

Cost of barrier diagnosis work (see Additional files 1, 2, and 3 for cost calculations and contribution of team members)

Feasibility

1

Total cost £228,609.12

Questionnaire

 

(labour = £224,256.68; direct costs = £4352.44)

•Required several iterations to develop, including piloting with sample of health professionals based at one general practice in a different geographical region, arranged through contacts within the research team (survey was sent electronically to 29 general practitioners, of which 12 responded with feedback) .

•Recruitment was difficult, with a low response rate (19 %), despite providing 2 reminders and a paper copy of the questionnaire to non-responders

•Developing, piloting, revising and administering the questionnaire and reminders, and the subsequent analysis of the data took approximately 8 months, with questionnaire drafting started in March 2010, and the data analysed by October 2010.

Interviews

•Recruitment was difficult: of an initial random sample of 20 health professionals sent a letter of recruitment, no responses were received, despite offering a £20 gift voucher as an incentive for taking part and the quality improvement team telephoning those who had received a letter. Gatekeepers (general practice managers) were subsequently used to recruit health professionals (the quality improvement team worked through the list of practices, talking to practice managers to gate-keep and encourage willing GPS to participate).

•To develop the interview schedule, send letters of invitation, conduct follow-up phone calls, contact practice managers, conduct and then transcribe and analyse 7 interviews took approximately 5 months, with the process beginning in July 2010 and being completed in November 2010.

The questionnaire and interview methods combined, therefore, took approximately 9 months, starting in March 2010 and concluding in November 2010.

2

£59,834.31

Questionnaire

 

(labour = £59,834.30; direct costs = £0)

•This used a modified version of the questionnaire used for project one. The questionnaire was piloted with 5 health professionals based at different practices within the collaborating primary care trust who were known to have an interest in the clinical topic by the quality improvement team. Questionnaire was only sent electronically

•Recruitment was challenging: low response rate (15 %), despite sending 2 reminders

•To modify the questionnaire, pilot, revise, administer, send the reminders, and the subsequent analysis of the data collected took approximately 4 months, with work beginning on the questionnaire in February 2012, and analysis being completed in May 2012.

Focus group

•Easy to arrange due to opportunity to attend a pre-arranged meeting to collect barriers, facilitated by quality improvement team colleagues. The meeting was attended by 10 general practitioners, 3 practice managers and 3 practice nurses.

•Arranging to attend and then attending single meeting for data collection, developing the focus group questions, transcribing and analysing the data took approximately 3 months, with initial email enquiry to NHS colleagues regarding potential to attend meeting sent November 2011, and the focus group held and the barriers collected and analysed in January 2012.

The questionnaire and focus group method combined, therefore, took approximately 7 months, starting in November 2011 and concluding in May 2012

3

£34,725.65

Published barriers

 

(labour = £34,725.65; direct costs = £0)

•No challenges encountered

•To develop literature search strategy, run the search, read articles and summarise the barriers identified in them, discuss barriers as a team (to check coding of them), share with a sample of health professionals (11 general practitioners and 1 practice nurse) to check local relevance and develop a logic model took approximately 2 months, with the process starting in August 2012 and being completed by October 2012

  1. *Labour costs are inflated for this project due to use of a questionnaire to guide topic selection compared with projects 2 and 3 which used only consultation with stakeholders to guide topic selection