Table 5 Facilitators identified from thematic analysis of focus group transcripts
THEME | Theme frequency by Focus Group Discussion (FGD) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sub-Theme | Description | Example Quote | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Totals |
MOTIVATORS TO PARTICIPATION | ||||||||
Wanting to be Healthy | Wanting to live a healthy life and catch disease early through preventative care. | “I want to stay healthy and alive as long as I can. Somebody said “would you really like to live to be 100 [years old]?” I said yeah, if I could do it right.” –FGD 5, Participant 5 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 41 |
Altruism | Desire to help researchers or the community. | “… I think to just be part of these studies is part of how we are there for each other, how we sort of have each other’s back, like they are kind of reflecting this data with us and it’s going to help … the next generation.” –FGD 3, Participant 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 24 |
Money as a Facilitator/Motivator | Having a desire to join the study based upon financial compensation. | “Because I just firmly believe most people who are going to do a study, it’s because of the money factor.” –FGD 4, Participant 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 26 |
Wanting Access to the Best Care | Wanting to receive the best health care that is available. | “If I have a group that is specific about gay, anal cancer where am I going to get better care than that? So, if it affords me the opportunity to get screened by the best of the best should I find out that I have something, which was my case, then I have the comfortable position of knowing I have seven years of care [for the ANCHOR study]. It’s like this is the best, sure I’ll drive down from Sonoma every six months.” –FGD 4, Participant 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 13 |
Wanting Health Education about the Anal Exam | Desire to be educated or obtain an understanding of the anal exam as it relates to their health. | “I’ll speak from my motivation to do which is if I have access to free schooling ongoing for seven years, in the case of the ANCHOR study I believe, that’s a huge value to me.” –FGD 4, Participant 5 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 23 |
Want Recommendation from their Provider | Wanting their medical provider to recommend HPV or anal cancer screening. | “So, if you can actually if the doctor himself or herself actually mentioned it, but that is probably a lot better than just having the information.” –FGD 2, Participant 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
Gay Provider | Wanting a gay provider for health care needs including the anal exam. | “I had one gay doctor and I am sure that he … if he wasn’t up to speed with it he could have gotten up to speed. The other docs, you know, I don’t have a whole lot of perception that they are familiar, or they are as comfortable with gay men’s health as I’d like them to be with mine.” –FGD 1, Participant 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 |