[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 225 (Wednesday, November 21, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58501-58502]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-29050]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-02-08]


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 National AIDS and STD Hotline Caller Survey 
OMB No. 0920-0295--Revision--National Center for HIV, STD, and TB 
Prevention (NCHSTP), Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Intervention, 
Research, and Support, Technical Information and Communication Branch. 
The purpose of this request is to continue active and passive data 
collection from people who call the CDC National AIDS and Sexually 
Transmitted Disease (STD) Hotlines. The mission of the CDC National 
AIDS and STD Hotlines is to provide the general population of the 
United States, its territories, and Puerto Rico with highly visible and 
readily accessible resources for accurate and timely information on 
HIV/AIDS and other STDs. The CDC is seeking OMB approval for renewal of 
the data collection with one proposed change and one proposed system 
enhancement, both aimed at improving the management and evaluation of 
collected information.
    The change is the ability of CDC to survey every 15th caller, 
instead of every 30th caller, to the hotlines. The information gathered 
will assist CDC in the improvement of HIV and STD services, 
particularly to high-risk populations. Before the integration of the 
National AIDS and STD Hotlines in 1998, every 15th caller was surveyed 
in the AIDS hotline, and every 30th caller was surveyed in the STD 
hotline.
    The National AIDS Hotline responded to a maximum of 1.6 million 
calls per year during the 1980s and early 1990s. Throughout the period, 
the calls have decreased to approximately 650,000 calls per year due to 
changes such as treatment advances, a more knowledgeable audience, and 
access to information on the Internet. However, the number of callers 
selected for the survey has increased to assure that a substantial 
amount of data can be submitted to CDC regarding information about the 
callers who contact the hotline. Respondents (callers) will be the 
general public, and only the callers to the hotlines will be affected.
    The enhancement to the data collection is the employment of a 
partially integrated system that will allow CDC Information Specialists 
to answer calls about HIV/AIDS and STDs using the same toll free 
telephone system. The telephone system will be designed to display 
telephone numbers for both the AIDS Hotline and the STD Hotline. Thus, 
when a caller contacts the hotline for AIDS information, the phone for 
the AIDS Hotline will appear on the caller ID. If the caller wants 
additional information about STDs, the same Information Specialist can 
respond to the call rather than requesting that the caller place a 
separate call to the STD Hotline. This process will also allow for an 
integrated data collection system for AIDS and STD caller information 
and service evaluation, as well as allow CDC to provide a more 
efficient and effective means of addressing the needs of its 
constituents.
    In addition, since both hotlines will still retain their separate 
telephone numbers, the call volume can be monitored separately with 
distinct extrapolation of data. This integrated system began in August 
2000. The integrated system also supports strategies in the CDC HIV 
Prevention Strategic Plan Through 2005, which also states that HIV 
prevention must be integrated with STD prevention.
    Data will be collected on an active and passive basis for both 
hotlines. The active data collection method occurs while the caller is 
on the phone. It allows the Information Specialist to gather 
information about caller demographics such as age, race, ethnicity and 
education through a short survey administered at the conclusion of the 
call. The passive data collection instrument allows the Information 
Specialist to capture more specific information about the 
characteristics of the caller such as the callers primary topic for 
discussion, gender, level of concern of caller. The Information 
Specialist enters this information into a database once the call is 
completed.

[[Page 58502]]

    To assist in completing the surveys and providing accurate data 
responses, the hotlines will be using the CDC Federal 
Telecommunications Service (FTS) 2001 telephone systems; call length 
data from the Integrated Information Program (IIP), which is a computer 
interface. The hotlines will also be using the Automated Call 
Distribution (ACD) program which allows the calls to be distributed to 
the correct numbers (AIDS or STD) and Symposium software which can 
assist the hotlines in several areas, including quickly (1) determining 
what happened to a call that may be in the queue,(2) compiling a 
geographic distribution table of all calls throughout the United 
States, including ages of callers,(3) and routing calls to the English, 
Spanish or TTY service.
    For the AIDS and STD integrated English service, the estimated 
number of persons surveyed for the active survey is 34,520, and the 
average active survey length is 72 seconds with a yearly burden of 691 
hours. It is estimated that passive surveys are completed on 29,420 
calls, and the average passive survey length for completion is 179 
seconds, with a yearly burden of 1,463 hours.
    Active surveys for the Spanish service for the AIDS Hotline are 
estimated to be about 5,040 calls with an average active survey length 
of 88 seconds. The average number of passive surveys estimated for the 
Spanish service is 5,000. All callers are surveyed from the TTY service 
and one out of three callers are surveyed from the Spanish service. 
There is no cost to the respondents.

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                                                                        Number of      Avg Burden/      Total
                     Respondents                         Number of     responses/     response  (in  burden  (in
                                                        respondents    respondents       hours)         hours)
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AIDS Hotline Calls/English...........................        21,760              1            1/60           363
AIDS Hotline Calls/Spanish...........................         5,040              1            2/60           168
AIDS Hotline Calls/TTY...............................           350              1            7/60            40
STD Hotline Calls/English............................        12,760              1            1/60           212
                                                      ----------------------------------------------------------
      Totals.........................................        39,910  ..............  ..............          783
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    Dated: November 15, 2001.
John Moore,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 01-29050 Filed 11-20-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P