Increasingly, social life—and accordingly, social research—is conducted in online environments. Asynchronous online focus groups (AOFGs) have emerged as an important tool to conduct remote research with geographically diverse populations. However, there remain few systematic accounts of AOFG methods to guide researchers’ decision-making in designing and implementing studies. This paper seeks to address this gap by describing a recent study on body image and health among transgender and gender diverse (TGD) young adults. In this study, eight AOFGs were conducted in August-October 2019 with 66 TGD young adults residing in 25 U.S. states. Each AOFG lasted four consecutive days with two prompts posted by moderators per day. Overall, participant satisfaction with AOFGs was high: 98% reported their experience was excellent, very good, or good and 95% would be somewhat or very likely to sign up for another AOFG. This example is used to illustrate key methodological decision-points, acceptability of the method to participants, and lessons learned. The goal of this paper is to encourage other researchers, particularly health researchers, to consider using AOFGs and to engage with the method’s strengths and limitations in order to develop new opportunities for online technologies to enrich the field of qualitative health research.

越来越多的社会生活——以及相应的社会研究——在网络环境中进行。异步在线焦点小组 (AOFG) 已成为对不同地域人群进行远程研究的重要工具。然而，在指导研究人员在设计和实施研究时做出决策的 AOFG 方法的系统说明仍然很少。本文试图通过描述最近一项关于跨性别和性别多样化 (TGD) 年轻人的身体形象和健康的研究来解决这一差距。在这项研究中，在 2019 年 8 月至 10 月期间进行了 8 次 AOFG，共有 66 名 TGD 年轻人居住在美国 25 个州。每个 AOFG 连续持续四天，每天有两个主持人发布提示。总体而言，参与者对 AOFG 的满意度很高：98% 的人表示他们的体验非常好、非常好、或好，95% 的人会或多或少地注册另一个 AOFG。此示例用于说明关键的方法决策点、参与者对该方法的可接受性以及经验教训。本文的目的是鼓励其他研究人员，特别是健康研究人员，考虑使用 AOFG，并利用该方法的优势和局限性，为在线技术开发新的机会，以丰富定性健康研究领域。