[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 51 (Tuesday, March 17, 2015)]

[Notices]

[Pages 13868-13869]

From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [http://www.gpo.gov/]

[FR Doc No: 2015-06050]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-15-0222; Docket No. CDC-2015-0007]

Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 

Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 

Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 

of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the 

utility of government information, invites the general public and other 

Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or 

continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on the Questionnaire 

Design Research Laboratory (QDRL)generic clearance request, which 

encompasses general questionnaire development and pre-testing 

activities to be carried out in 2014-2017.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before May 18, 2015.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2015-

0007 by any of the following methods:

 Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulation.gov. Follow the 

instructions for submitting comments.

 Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review 

Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 

NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.

 Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 

and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 

without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 

provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 

comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

 Please note: All public comment should be submitted through the 

Federal eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the 

address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 

proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 

and instruments, contact the Information Collection Review Office, 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MSD74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: omb@cdc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 

the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 

information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 

Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 

concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 

proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 

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information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 

collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 

comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 

proposed data collection as described below.

 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; (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; and (e) estimates of capital or startup costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 

to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 

financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 

disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 

includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, 

install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of 

collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and 

maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to 

train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of 

information, to search data sources, to complete and review the 

collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the 

information.

Proposed Project

 Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory (QDRL) (OMB No. 0920-0222, 

expires 6/30/2015)--Revision--National Center for Health Statistics 

(NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

 Section 306 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act (42 U.S.C. 

242k), as amended, authorizes that the Secretary of Health and Human 

Services (DHHS), acting through NCHS, shall undertake and support (by 

grant or contract) research, demonstrations, and evaluations respecting 

new or improved methods for obtaining current data to support 

statistical and epidemiological activities for the purpose of improving 

the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of health services in the 

United States.

 The Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory (QDRL) is the focal 

point within NCHS for questionnaire development, pre-testing, and 

evaluation activities for CDC surveys (such as the NCHS National Health 

Interview Survey, OMB No. 0920-0214) and other federally sponsored 

surveys; however, question development and evaluation activities are 

conducted throughout NCHS. NCHS is requesting 3

[[Page 13869]]

years of OMB Clearance for this generic submission.

 The QDRL and other NCHS programs conduct cognitive interviews, 

focus groups, in-depth or ethnographic interviews, usability tests, 

field tests/pilot interviews, and experimental research in laboratory 

and field settings, both for applied questionnaire development and 

evaluation as well as more basic research on response errors in 

surveys.

 Various techniques to evaluate interviewer administered, selfadministered, telephone, Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing 

(CAPI), Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing (CASI), Audio ComputerAssisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI), and web-based questionnaires are 

used.

 The most common questionnaire evaluation method is the cognitive 

interview. These evaluations are conducted by the QDRL. The interview 

structure consists of respondents first answering a draft survey 

question and then providing textual information to reveal the processes 

involved in answering the test question. Specifically, cognitive 

interview respondents are asked to describe how and why they answered 

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the question as they did. Through the interviewing process, various 

types of question-response problems that would not normally be 

identified in a traditional survey interview, such as interpretive 

errors and recall accuracy, are uncovered. By conducting a comparative 

analysis of cognitive interviews, it is also possible to determine 

whether particular interpretive patterns occur within particular subgroups of the population. Interviews are generally conducted in small 

rounds of 20-30 interviews; ideally, the questionnaire is re-worked 

between rounds, and revisions are tested iteratively until interviews 

yield relatively few new insights.

 Cognitive interviewing is inexpensive and provides useful data on 

questionnaire performance while minimizing respondent burden. Cognitive 

interviewing offers a detailed depiction of meanings and processes used 

by respondents to answer questions--processes that ultimately produce 

the survey data. As such, the method offers an insight that can 

transform understanding of question validity and response error. 

Documented findings from these studies represent tangible evidence of 

how the question performs. Such documentation also serves CDC data 

users, allowing them to be critical users in their approach and 

application of the data.

 In addition to cognitive interviewing, a number of other 

qualitative and quantitative methods are used to investigate and 

research survey response errors and the survey response process. These 

methods include conducting focus groups, usability tests, in-depth or 

ethnographic interviews, and the administration and analysis of 

questions in both representative and non-representative field tests. 

Focus groups are conducted by the QDRL. They are group interviews whose 

primary purpose is to elicit the basic sociocultural understandings and 

terminology that form the basis of questionnaire design. Each group 

typically consists of one moderator and 4 to 10 participants, depending 

on the research question. In-depth or ethnographic interviews are oneon-one interviews designed to elicit the understandings or terminology 

that are necessary for question design, as well as to gather detailed 

information that can contribute to the analysis of both qualitative and 

quantitative data. Usability tests are typically one-on-one interviews 

that are used to determine how a given survey or information collection 

tool functions in the field, and how the mode and layout of the 

instrument itself may contribute to survey response error and the 

survey response process.

 In addition to these qualitative methods, NCHS also uses various 

tools to obtain quantitative data, which can be analyzed alone or 

analyzed alongside qualitative data to give a much fuller accounting of 

the survey response process. For instance, phone, internet, mail, and 

in-person follow-up interviews of previous NCHS survey respondents may 

be used to test the validity of survey questions and questionnaires and 

to obtain more detailed information that cannot be gathered on the 

original survey. Additionally, field or pilot tests may be conducted on 

both representative and non-representative samples, including those 

obtained from commercial survey and web panel vendors. Beyond looking 

at traditional measures of survey errors (such as missing rates, item 

non-response, and don't know rates), these pilot tests can be used to 

run experimental designs in order to capture how different questions 

function in a field setting.

 Similar methodology has been adopted by other federal agencies, as 

well as by academic and commercial survey organizations. There are no 

costs to respondents other than their time. The total estimated annual 

burden hours are 13,150.

 Estimated Annualized Burden Hours

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 Average

 Number of Number of burden per Total burden

 Type of respondent Form name respondents responses per response (in hours

 respondent hours)

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Individuals or households..... Eligibility 12,000 1 5/60 1,000

 Screening.

Individuals or households..... Questionnaire 11,700 1 1 11,700

 Development

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 Studies.

Individuals or households..... Focus groups.... 300 1 90/60 450

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 Total..................... ................ .............. .............. .............. 13,150

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Leroy A. Richardson,

Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 

Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 

Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

[FR Doc. 2015-06050 Filed 3-16-15; 8:45 am]

 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P

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