[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 156 (Friday, August 13, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44223-44224]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-20945]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[30 DAY-20-99]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 639-7090. Send written 
comments to CDC, Desk Officer; Human Resources and Housing Branch, New 
Executive Office Building, Room 10235; Washington, DC 20503. Written 
comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    The Role of Positive and Negative Emotion in Promoting Hearing 
Conservation Behaviors Among Coal Miners--New--The mission of the 
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is to 
promote ``safety and health at work for all people through research and 
prevention.'' NIOSH investigates and identifies occupational safety and 
health hazards and conducts a variety of activities, including 
educational programs with workers, to help prevent work-related illness 
and injury.
    One of the most widespread, but often overlooked, occupational 
hazards is noise. As a result, hearing loss is the most common 
occupational disease in the United States today. More than 30 million 
workers are exposed to hazardous noise levels.
    The risk of hearing loss is particularly high in certain 
occupations. Research shows that more than 90 percent of coal miners 
will experience moderate to significant hearing loss by the time they 
reach retirement. This level of hearing loss has a number of negative 
implications for both the affected individual and others: (1) Impaired 
communication with family members, friends, and coworkers can result in 
social isolation; (2) Unrelenting tinnitus (ringing in the ears) can 
significantly lower one's quality of life; (3) a diminished ability to 
monitor the work environment (including warning signals, etc.) 
increases the risk of accidents and further injury at the workplace; 
and finally, (4) there are economic costs that result from workers 
compensation and lower productivity.
    NIOSH believes that there are two broad strategies for reducing the 
risk of hearing loss. First, wherever possible, engineering controls 
have to be implemented at the source of the hazardous noise. Second, 
workers have to be educated about hazardous levels of noise and what 
they can do to prevent hearing loss. This study falls into the latter 
category.
    The study is required because past efforts at educating coal miners 
about hearing loss have had only mixed success. Hearing loss occurs 
without pain or obvious physical abnormalities, so it has been 
difficult to create a sense of urgency about this problem among 
workers. NIOSH has to identify new and more effective ways of promoting 
hearing conservation behaviors.
    In this study, NIOSH proposes working with the United Mine Workers 
of America, and experts in health communication, to test the 
effectiveness of several innovative approaches to communicating risk 
and promoting safer behaviors. Different messages will be sent to five 
different groups of coal miners. All participants will receive some 
beneficial information. The researchers will follow up with these 
groups at two different points in time to assess the relative 
effectiveness of the messages.
    The central purpose of this study is to promote hearing 
conservation among coal miners. However, NIOSH believes that the 
results of this study will help in similar efforts with other worker 
populations. The total burden hours are 340.

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                                                                                      No. of        Avg. burden
                           Respondents                                No. of        responses/     per response
                                                                    respondents     respondent       (in hrs.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coal Miners in Pretest..........................................              80               1              .5
Coal Miners in Study............................................             300               2              .5
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    2. Measurement of Stress and Stressful Life Events in Black Women 
of Reproductive Age (0920-0356)--Reinstatement--National Center for 
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. A review of studies of 
psycho-social factors and adverse pregnancy outcome supports the 
hypothesis that high levels of exposure to stressful life experiences 
put black women at increased risk for adverse reproductive outcome, 
particularly Pre-Term Delivery (PTD) and Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW). 
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability and validity 
of existing instruments that measure stress and stressful life events 
in black women of reproductive age. Eligible subjects will be black 
women who live in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Subjects will be 
recruited from flyers, newspaper announcements, hospitals and clinics 
in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Subjects will be screened and 
selected based on age (18-30 or 31-45 years), years of education (12, 
13-15, 16 or more), and pregnancy status (pregnant, not pregnant). A 
maximum of thirty women will be selected for each combination of age, 
education and pregnancy status. The minimum age for participation will 
be 18 to avoid the complications due to requirement of parental 
consent. Women will be excluded if they use illicit drugs, such as 
heroin, cocaine and marijuana because these substances may alter the 
metabolism of cortisol. The contact, timing and spacing of the 
interviews and laboratory collection are based on the methodology 
developed and used for conducting reliability and validity tests. 
Approximately one half of the women will be pregnant at the time of 
data collection.
    Women enrolled in the study respond to a series of face-to-face and 
self-administered demographic and psycho-social questionnaires. Women 
are also asked to provide a saliva sample so that we can correlate 
reported levels of stress with biological measures of stress.
    Participation in this study is voluntary and participants will 
receive compensation for their time. A written informed consent will be 
obtained and oversight will be provided by local institutional review 
board.
    This project should take two years. One hundred fifteen (115) women 
will

[[Page 44224]]

participate only in the validity study and thirty-nine (39) women will 
participate in the validity and reliability study. The validity study 
requires one interview and one salivary sample. The reliability study 
requires a second interview and a second salivary specimen, 
approximately two weeks after the first interview.
    During the first three months of the study, the Project Director 
will set up the office, hire staff and student assistants and provide 
interviewer and data entry training. The Project Director will also 
make contacts and explore potential sites for recruiting women for the 
study. During the next nine months, all of the interviews 
(approximately 115 validity subjects and 39 reliability subjects 
remaining) will be conducted and data entry of the quantitative 
instruments (i.e., Demographic Lifestyle Questionnaire, Cohen Perceived 
Stress Scale, Life Experience Survey (LES), ARIC/BAECKE Questionnaire 
of Habitual Physical Activity, Center for Epidemiologic Studies 
Depression Scale (CES-D), Profile of Mood States, Multiple Affect 
Adjustive Checklist, Speilberger Trait Anxiety Inventory--Self 
Evaluation Questionnaire) will be completed. Scoring for the 
qualitative instruments (i.e., Structured Event Probe and Narrative 
Rating Method (SEPRATE) and Life Events and Difficulties Schedule 
(LEDS) will be initiated during year 1, but the bulk of the qualitative 
scoring will be completed during Year 2. The data entry of the 
qualitative date will be completed during Year 2. Preliminary analyzes 
will be conducted during Year 2, with the technical assistance of CDC. 
The total burden hours are 579.

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                                                                                      No. of       Avg. burden/
                           Respondents                                No. of        responses/     response (in
                                                                    respondents     respondent         hrs.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reliability Study Group.........................................              39               2               3
Validity Study Group............................................             115               1               3
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    Dated: August 9, 1999.
Nancy Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 99-20945 Filed 8-12-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P