[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 27 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7112-7113]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-2574]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-05-0572]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    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) 371-5976 or send an e-mail 
to [email protected]. Send written comments to CDC Desk Officer, Human 
Resources and Housing Branch, New Executive Office Building, Room 
10235, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202) 395-6974. Written 
comments should be received within 30 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    CDC and ATSDR Health Message Testing System (0920-0572)--Revision--
Office of the Director, Office of Communication (OD/OC), Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The revision to this submission 
is the addition of a request for the program to use Web-enabled panels 
as an additional data collection tool that can be used for the projects 
within this clearance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC) protects people's health and safety by preventing and controlling 
diseases and injuries; promotes healthy living 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. Such information affects the health 
and well-being of people across

[[Page 7113]]

all stages of life by making our food supply safe, identifying harmful 
behaviors, and improving our environment.
    CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 
(ATSDR) must fulfill their mission and mandate to 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 
altogether, 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 four 
routine health message development and testing methods: (1) Central 
Location Intercept Interviews (i.e., ``shopping mall'' interviews); (2) 
Customer Satisfaction Phone Interviews; (3) Focus Groups; and (4) 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 renewal of the Health 
Message Testing System that will conduct up to 64 message testing 
activities per year for each of three years. If all 64 testing 
activities are implemented, the total estimated annualized burden is 
3,000 hours.
    Annualized Burden Table:

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                                              Number of         Number of         Number of      Average burden
             Data collection               activities  per   respondents per    responses per     per response
                                                year            activity         respondent        (in hours)
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Intercept and touch screen interviews...                64             1,600                 1             30/60
Customer Satisfaction Phone Interviews..                64             1,200                 1             30/60
Focus Groups............................                64             1,200                 1             30/60
Web-enabled research....................                64             2,400                 1             30/60
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    Dated: February 3, 2005.
Betsey Dunaway,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Science Officer, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 05-2574 Filed 2-9-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P