[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 213 (Friday, November 2, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55675-55676]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-27528]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-02-05]


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: Tailoring Occupational Safety and Health Messages 
to Individual Health Construals--NEW--The National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC). The mission of the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health is to promote safety and health at work 
for all people through research and prevention.
    The overall goal of the current project is to examine the 
effectiveness of tailoring NIOSH web-based communications to the 
psychological characteristics of the individuals who receive the 
communications. Typically, NIOSH publications informing at-risk workers 
about health hazards and safety recommendations are distributed by mail 
using a printed format. However, the growing use of computers opens the 
door to a new format for distributing health and safety information to 
workers: Communication of health information via the Web. Importantly, 
web-based communication makes it possible to tailor health information 
to particular users. Past research has demonstrated that health-related 
behavior may be construed positively by an individual, in terms of 
wellness, or negatively, in terms in illness. The current project tests 
the effectiveness of message tailoring on this dimension.
    This project will examine the effectiveness of tailoring a web 
communication based on the NIOSH document ``Stress* * *At Work'' (and 
additional occupational stress research) to users' personal construals 
of this issue in terms of wellness or illness. Health care workers, 
specifically nurses, have been selected as the target audience to 
receive these tailored messages on occupational stress as they 
frequently experience multiple, chronic, occupationally related 
stressors. One important source of occupational stress among nurses has 
been the move from the traditional inpatient, fee-for-service model to 
the outpatient, managed care model. The sweeping nature of this 
organizational change has dramatically altered the working conditions 
for an estimated 10 million healthcare workers in the United States and 
has left many healthcare workers, including nurses, without a sense of 
connection between their professional expectations and the goals of 
their organizations. Chronic occupational stress of this sort can lead 
to increased levels of depression among affected workers. Consequently, 
it is estimated that healthcare workers suffer from rates of depression 
2-3 times higher than the general population. The corrosive effects of 
chronic stress can also leave workers more vulnerable to

[[Page 55676]]

incidents of acute stress. This is particularly important among 
healthcare workers, as research indicates that they are increasingly 
being exposed to incidents of violence and trauma on the job. As a 
result, healthcare workers have a significantly increased risk of 
developing posttraumatic stress disorder. Given the many occupationally 
related stress risk factors experienced by healthcare workers, the 
development of effective occupational stress interventions for health 
care workers is of the utmost importance. Therefore, this study will 
investigate ways to increase the effectiveness of occupational stress 
interventions targeted at nurses, the single largest healthcare worker 
group.
    Through the use of message tailoring, the proposed project aims to 
increase health care workers' adherence to recommendations suggested by 
NIOSH to prevent and reduce the effects of occupational stress. In 
study 1, attitudinal predictors of occupational stress prevention/
reduction behaviors will be assessed for registered nurses who view 
this issue as a wellness (health maintenance) issue versus an illness 
prevention issue. This data will be obtained from a sample of 500 
registered nurses who will be asked to complete a mail survey assessing 
their attitudes and behaviors with regard to preventing and reducing 
workplace stress. In a second study, a web-based ``occupational 
stress'' document will be adapted from the NIOSH document ``Stress* * * 
at Work `` Two formats of this web-based document will be created that 
are tailored to nurses who construe the issue of workplace stress as a 
wellness issue, or as an illness issue. The impact of tailoring the 
message format to the nurse's construal of the issue of occupational 
stress will be examined in a laboratory setting where 300 participants 
will indicate whether they construe this issue in terms of maintaining 
wellness (positively) or in terms of illness prevention (negatively), 
and will then be randomly assigned to gain or loss frame web 
communications. The impact of the tailored messages on participants' 
attitudes and behavioral intentions with regard to occupational stress 
prevention and reduction will be assessed.
    The results of this project should provide NIOSH with information 
about how to develop effective Web-based communication strategies using 
message tailoring. This should have the consequence of enhancing 
occupational safety and health attitudes and behaviors among at-risk 
workers.

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                                                          Number of                                     Total
               Respondents                   Number of    responses/   Avg. burden per response (in   burden (in
                                            respondents   respondent              hours)                hours)
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Nurses (Data collection #1)..............           500            1  20/60                                  167
Nurses (Data Collection #2):.............
    Survey 1.............................           300            1  30/60                                  150
    Follow-up............................           300            1  5/60                                    25
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        Total............................  ............  ...........  .............................          342
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    Dated: October 25, 2001.
Nancy E. Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 01-27528 Filed 11-1-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P