[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 161 (Friday, August 19, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51981-51982]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-21197]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60-Day-11-11JY]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    In compliance with the requirement of Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on 
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects. 
To request more information on the proposed projects or to obtain a 
copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call 404-639-5960 
and send comments to Daniel Holcomb, CDC Reports Clearance Officer, 
1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an e-mail to 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#92fdfff0d2f1f6f1bcf5fde4"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="4a2527280a292e29642d253c">[email protected]</span></a>.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology. Written comments should be received 
within 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    Barriers to Occupational Injury Reporting by Workers: A NEISS-Work 
Telephone Interview Survey--New--National Institute for Occupational 
Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Each year about 5,400 workers die from a work-related injury and 4 
million private industry workers report a nonfatal injury or illness. 
There are 3.4 million workers treated in U.S. hospital emergency 
departments annually for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses 
[1]. Although studies indicate that we have reduced the number of 
nonfatal injuries in recent decades, there is evidence that nonfatal 
occupational injury surveillance significantly underreports workplace 
injuries. This presumed undercount potentially decreases health and 
safety funding because of a false sense of improvement in the 
occupational injury rates. It also increases the misdirection of scarce 
safety and health resources because hazardous workplaces are not 
appropriately identified or assessed and intervention efforts cannot be 
properly targeted or evaluated. It is this basic need for reliable and 
comprehensive occupational injury surveillance that led to the 1987 
National Academy of Science report Counting Injuries and Illnesses in 
the Workplace--Proposals for a Better System [6] and the 2008 
Congressional Report Hidden Tragedy: Underreporting of Workplace 
Injuries and Illnesses [1].
    The proposed pilot research addresses two facets of nonfatal 
occupational injury reporting noted in these reports--understanding 
barriers and incentives to reporting occupational injuries and using 
this knowledge to assess and improve our surveillance activities. The 
objectives of this project are to (1) characterize and quantify the 
relative importance of incentives and disincentives to self-identifying 
work-relatedness at the time of medical treatment and to employers; (2) 
characterize individual and employment characteristics that are 
associated with non-reporting of workplace injuries and incentives and 
disincentives to reporting; (3) test the reliability of hospital 
abstractors to properly distinguish between work-related and non-work-
related injuries; and (4) evaluate the feasibility, need, and 
requirements for a future larger study. Results will be disseminated in 
multiple forms to reach a variety of

[[Page 51982]]

occupational health and safety stakeholders.
    This project will use the occupational and the all injuries 
supplements to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System 
(NEISS-Work and NEISS-AIP, respectively) to identify telephone 
interview survey participants. NEISS-Work and NEISS-AIP, collected by 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), capture people who were 
treated in the emergency department (ED) for a work-related illness or 
injury (NEISS-Work) or any injury, regardless of work-relatedness 
(NEISS-AIP). Interview respondents will come from two subgroups--
individuals treated for a work-related injury and individuals who were 
treated for a non-work-related injury but who were employed during the 
time period that the injury occurred.
    Data collection for the telephone interview survey will be done via 
a questionnaire. This questionnaire contains questions about the 
respondent's injury that sent them to the ED, the characteristics of 
the job they were working when they were injured, their experiences 
reporting their injury to the ED and their employer (if applicable), 
and their beliefs about the process and subsequent consequences of 
reporting an injury. The questionnaire was designed to take 30 minutes 
to complete. It contains a brief introduction that includes the 
elements of informed consent and asks for verbal consent to be given. 
The study has received a waiver of written informed consent by the 
NIOSH Human Subjects Review Board. The questionnaire includes a brief 
series of questions to screen out individuals who were not employed at 
the time the injury occurred or was made worse; who are younger than 
age 20 or older than age 64; who do not speak English; who were 
employed on a farm or ranch or were self-employed, an independent 
contractor, or a day laborer at the time of injury; who did not 
experience an acute injury; or who missed more than three days from 
work because of the injury. The informed consent procedure and 
screening questions take around five minutes to complete.
    Approximately 600 interviews will be completed. There are no costs 
to respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                               Average burden
                    Type of respondent                          Number of       per response      Total burden
                                                               respondents       (in hours)           hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. workers with work-related injury.....................               600             30/60               300
U.S. workers with non-work-related injury.................               600             30/60               300
    Total.................................................  ................  ................               600
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Dated: August 15, 2011.
Daniel Holcomb,
Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2011-21197 Filed 8-18-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P


</pre><script data-cfasync="false" src="/cdn-cgi/scripts/5c5dd728/cloudflare-static/email-decode.min.js"></script></body>
</html>