[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 179 (Friday, September 14, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47919-47921]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-23067]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-01-61]


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 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 or other 
forms of information technology. Send comments to Anne O'Connor, 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 Project: CDC and ATSDR Health Message Development and 
Testing System Status--New--Office of the Director, Office of 
Communication (OD/OC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) protects 
people's health and safety by preventing and controlling diseases and 
injuries; promotes healthy living

[[Page 47920]]

through strong partnerships with local, national and international 
organizations, and enhances health decisions by providing credible 
information on critical health issues.
    Members of the public and health practitioners at all levels 
require up-to-date, credible information about health and safety in 
order to make rational decisions. To help support this crucial decision 
making, CDC has continued to increase and apply its preeminent 
expertise in the disciplines of public health surveillance, 
epidemiology, statistical analysis, laboratory investigation and 
analysis, behavioral risk reduction, technology transfer, prevention 
research, social marketing, and health communication. CDC applies the 
science that underpins those disciplines to develop and disseminate 
credible and practical health information to meet the diverse needs of 
its primary clients, the people of the United States. Such information 
affects the health and well-being of people across all stages of life 
by making our food supply safe, identifying harmful behaviors, and 
improving our environment.
    CDC, and it's sister agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and 
Disease Registry (ATSDR), in order to fulfill their mission and 
mandates, must frequently communicate urgent and sensitive health 
messages with the general public, members of the public with certain 
diseases or disabling conditions, and those at a greater risk of 
exposure to disease or injury causing agents. CDC/ATSDR makes this 
crucial health information available through many channels including 
books, periodicals, and monographs; internet Web sites; health and 
safety guidelines; reports from investigations and emergency responses; 
public health monitoring and statistics; travel advisories; answers to 
public inquiries; and health education campaigns.
    In addition to serving the public, CDC/ATSDR delivers health 
information that enables health providers to make critical decisions. 
For instance, the practicing medical and dental communities and the 
nation's health care providers are target audiences for numerous 
official CDC recommendations concerning the diagnosis and treatment of 
disease, immunization schedules, infection control, and clinical 
prevention practices. CDC/ATSDR offers technical assistance and 
training to health professionals as well.
    In order to ensure that the public and other key audiences, like 
health care providers, understand the information, are motivated to 
take action, and are not offended or react negatively to the messages, 
it is critical to test messages and materials prior to their production 
and release. Currently, each CDC program developing health messages is 
required to submit its message development and testing activities for 
individual OMB review. Many CDC programs have extremely short deadlines 
for developing and producing health messages. Some deadlines are 
imposed by Congress, and others are necessitated by the time-sensitive 
nature of the work. Many programs cannot accommodate the time required 
for OMB approval, and therefore skip the message testing step all 
together, or resort to testing specific portions of messages with 9 or 
fewer individuals. The science of health communication does not support 
these programmatic practices. In fact, these undesirable alternatives 
weaken CDC/ATSDR position as a research-based public health agency 
providing credible health information that people can count on and use.
    CDC may achieve a greater level of efficacy if it can use three 
routine health message development and testing methods: (1) Central 
Location Intercept Interviews (i.e. ``Shopping mall'' interviews); (2) 
Customer Satisfaction Phone Interviews; and (3) Web-enabled research. 
Virtually every Center, Institute and Office (CIO) at CDC could achieve 
a higher level of confidence that health messages were understandable 
and would provoke no unintended consequences if they were empowered to 
use these methods efficiently. The CDC Office of Communication 
therefore requests approval for implementation of a Health Message 
Development and Testing System that will conduct approximately 64 
message testing activities per year for each of three years. A message 
testing activity is defined as a one time use of a method to provide 
direction for a specific health communication program. For example, if 
the diabetes program wanted to test messages with a Central Location 
Intercept Interview and Customer Satisfaction Phone Interviews these 
activities would be counted as 2 separate testing activities. If all 64 
testing activities were implemented, total respondent burden per year 
is estimated at 3200 hours.
    While the methods of message development and testing are standard, 
the instruments and outcomes are unique to the health topic and 
audience the health message is being developed on and for. This health 
message development and testing system will allow a timely mechanism 
for developing and testing health messages on a wide variety of public 
health topics to ensure that the appropriate message is delivered and 
received by the American public. This request presents methodology, 
background information, justification for the process, and sample 
questionnaires and questions. Other than their valuable time and input, 
there is no cost to respondents.

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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total  burden
            Form of research activity               respondents   responses  per   response  (in    (in hours)
                                                                     respondent       hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Location Intercept Interviews...........            2800               1           30/60            1400
Customer Satisfaction Phone Interviews..........            1200               1           30/60             600
Web-enabled research............................            2400               1           30/60            1200
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............            3200
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[[Page 47921]]

    Dated: September 7, 2001.
Nancy E. Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 01-23067 Filed 9-13-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P