Women's experiences of discrimination and the impact on health: research

Annex A: Focus group topic guide

This focus group is on discrimination and health. This research is being carried out as part of the Scottish Government's Women's Health Plan, in which the plan and its associated work is inclusive of women, girls, and all those who access women's health services. We are interested in any and all experiences you are comfortable sharing on this topic. There are no right or wrong answers and if you don't understand anything or we aren't clear, do say, as you probably aren't the only one thinking it.

Let's get started then. We'll begin with a few exercises to get us thinking about what some of these words mean to everyone. We are doing some interactive word clouds, which are anonymous (nobody can see what you write).

For these exercises, we will be using a software called Mentimeter. We will ask you three questions and the answers you give will create a wordcloud.

For each of the questions, you can either do this on the laptop/computer you're on, clicking on to your web-browser while still being in the Zoom call, or you can access it through your mobile phone/tablet/iPad etc. For the browser option, just follow the link we will post into the chat that will take you a form on the Mentimeter website where you can type in and submit words as answers to the questions.

If you are using a separate device, go onto the Mentimeter website and put in the following code in the box at the top of the screen.

I will then share my screen to show the live answers that are being submitted to the question. Just to emphasise that this is all completely anonymous – no-one will know who has submitted what answer. This should all make more sense as we go.

Interactive opener exercises

1. What comes to mind when you think about your health and being 'healthy'? Interactive word cloud exercise.

Direct URL for your web browser

or

go to Mentimeter on your phone and tablet and put in the voting code: 9716 2215

2. What things do you think impact on your health? Interactive word cloud exercise.

Direct URL for your web browser

or

go to Mentimeter on your phone and tablet and put in the voting code: 4664 9905

3. One of the things that potentially impacts on your health is discrimination. What does the word 'discrimination' mean to you? Interactive word cloud exercise.

Direct URL for your web browser

or

go to Mentimeter on your phone and tablet and put in the voting code: 5924 2410

Main focus group questions

Thanks for your input. One definition of discrimination is we found is: the unfair treatment of people based on certain characteristics including their sex, gender, race/ethnicity, disability, age, religion, education level, where you live, language and sexual orientation. This might be something experienced through an interaction with a person, an institution or a public space or environment. So we aren't just talking about explicit instances of discrimination, they might be more subtle or hidden, and someone may experience several forms of discrimination at one time. This doesn't mean all negative experiences you have had, but things that have happened specifically because of your background or belonging to a certain group.

4. Based on what people have noted in the word cloud and the definition we've given, can you think of any examples where you have experienced or witnessed discrimination?

Probing question: do you think that experience impacted on your health in any way?

5. Based on these experiences you have all described, are you able to reflect on any similarities and differences between them?

Probing question: why do you think there are these differing/similar experiences? What do you think is going on there?

6. If there is time: Is discrimination something you thought could impact on your health before this focus group?

General probing questions throughout:

Does anyone have any comments on that question or what others have said?

Do others feel similarly or differently to that?

Why do you think that is?

What do you think might be happening there?