[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 84 (Monday, May 1, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25329-25330]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-10736]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60 Day-00-35]


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, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention is providing opportunity for public comment on proposed data 
collection projects. To request more information on the proposed 
projects or to obtain a copy of the data collection plans and 
instruments, call the CDC Reports Clearance Officer on (404) 639-7090.
    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 for other 
forms of information technology. Send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC 
Assistant Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24, 
Atlanta, GA 30333. Written comments should be received within 60 days 
of this notice.
    Proposed Projects: A Research Program to Develop Optimal NIOSH 
Alerts for Occupational Safety and Health--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. The Alert is one of the primary publications by which NIOSH 
communicates health and safety recommendations to at-risk workers. The 
Alert is mailed to workers affected by a particular health or safety 
hazard and contains information about the nature of the hazard, as well 
as recommendations for avoiding or controlling it. Despite the 
important role of the Alert in conveying health and safety information 
to workers, these publications have not been routinely pretested and 
evaluated for effectiveness. Therefore, the degree to which the NIOSH 
Alerts actually produce risk awareness, as well as comprehension, 
acceptance and use of the recommended health and safety measures, is 
unknown.
    NIOSH proposes to apply recent theoretical advances in 
communication research to the development of NIOSH Alerts in order to 
ensure maximal effectiveness in conveying health and safety information 
to workers. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a communication 
theory that has received much empirical support. During the past year, 
an initial test (still in progress) was conducted to compare a standard 
Alert to an Alert with revised content and format based on the 
postulates of the ELM. Although this initial study will be informative, 
much additional research of this nature is necessary to gain an 
understanding of the communication variables that contribute to high 
levels of worker awareness, comprehension, acceptance, and use of 
safety recommendations.
    According to the ELM, the greatest impact on long-term health/
safety attitudes and behaviors should occur when workers are motivated 
and able to elaborate upon a message, and when a message contains 
strong arguments. Therefore, the current investigation aims to (1) 
examine variables that will increase level of message-related 
elaboration and (2) create messages that contain strong arguments. The 
effectiveness of the standard version of the Alert for Preventing 
Injuries and Deaths from Skid-Steer Loaders will be compared with 
revised versions of this Alert that incorporate variables known to 
increase message elaboration and strong arguments selected through 
pretesting. Specifically, the revised Alerts will use high imagery 
language to increase message elaboration. After the initial messages 
are developed, they will be pretested using a sample of 60 farmers and 
60 West Virginia University Agricultural Sciences students. Following 
this pretesting phase, data will be gathered from: (1) 300 volunteer 
farmers who attend an on-site testing, (2) a national random sample of 
300 farmers, and (3) 600 West Virginia University Agricultural Science 
students. In each of these cases, participants will be randomly 
assigned to receive either a standard or revised version of the Alert, 
and the effect of the different Alert formats on safety attitudes and 
behaviors will be assessed.
    Data collected in this investigation should further our 
understanding of the variables that increase effectiveness in 
communicating health and safety information to workers. By continuing 
to systematically apply postulates of the ELM to the design of the 
Alerts, it should become possible to develop a

[[Page 25330]]

standard communication template to use in future NIOSH publications.

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                                                                     Number of     Avg. burden/
               Type of respondent                    Number of      responses/     response  (in    Total  (in
                                                    respondents     respondent         hrs.)           hrs.)
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Farmers (pretesting)............................              60               1            .5                30
Student (pretesting)............................              60               1            .5                30
Farmers.........................................             300               1            .333             100
Farmers.........................................             300               2            .333             200
Students........................................             600               1            .5               300
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
  Total.........................................            1320  ..............  ..............             660
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Charles W. Gollmar,
Acting Associate Director for Policy Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 00-10736 Filed 4-28-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P