[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 212 (Thursday, November 3, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66839-66840]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-21914]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-06-0607]


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 404-639-4766 
and send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC Assistant Reports Clearance 
Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an email 
to [email protected].
    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. Written comments should be received 
within 60 days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    The National Violent Death Reporting System-Revision-National 
Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention (CDC).
    Violence is an important public health problem. In the United 
States, homicide and suicide are the second and third leading causes of 
death, respectively, in the 1-34 year old age group. Unfortunately, 
public health agencies do not know much more about the problem than the 
numbers and the sex, race, and age of the victims--all information 
obtainable from the standard death certificate. Death certificates, 
however, carry no information about key factors necessary for 
prevention such as the victim-suspect relationship or the circumstances 
of the deaths. This makes it impossible to discern anything but the 
gross contours of the problem. Furthermore, death certificates are 
typically not available until 20 months after the completion of a 
calendar year. Official publications of national violent death rates, 
e.g., those in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use 
data that are more than two years old. Public health interventions 
aimed at a moving target last seen two years ago may well miss the 
mark.
    Local and Federal criminal justice agencies such as the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more information about 
homicides, but they do not routinely collect standardized data about 
suicides, which are much more common within all age groups than 
homicides. The FBI's Supplemental Homicide Report System (SHRS) does 
collect basic information about the victim-suspect relationship and 
circumstances. But, as with death certificates, SHRS does not link 
violent deaths that are part of one incident such as homicides-
suicides. Because it is a voluntary system, approximately 10-20 percent 
of police departments nationwide do not participate. The FBI's National 
Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) addresses some of these 
deficiencies, but covers less of the country than SHRS, includes only 
homicides, and collects only police information. Also, the Bureau of 
Justice Statistics Reports do not use data that are more than two years 
old.
    CDC therefore proposes to continue a state-based surveillance 
system for violent deaths that will provide more detailed and timely 
information. It taps into the case records held by medical examiners/
coroners, police, and crime labs. Data are collected centrally by each 
state in the system, stripped of identifiers, and then sent to the CDC. 
Information is collected from these records about the characteristics 
of the victims and suspects, the circumstances of the deaths, and the 
weapons involved. States use standardized data elements and software 
designed by CDC. Ultimately, this information is intended to guide 
states in designing programs that reduce multiple forms of violence.
    Neither victim families nor suspects are contacted to collect 
information for The National Violent Death Reporting System. Data come 
from existing records and are collected by state health department 
staff or their subcontractors. Health departments incur an average of 
2.5 hours per death in identifying the deaths from death certificates, 
contacting the police and medical examiners to get copies of or to view 
the relevant records, abstracting the records, various data processing 
tasks, various administrative tasks, etc.
    The number of state health departments to be funded may be as high 
as 22 by 2009. Seventeen states are currently funded. NCIPC hopes to 
eventually fund all 50 states. Violent deaths include all homicides, 
suicides, legal interventions, deaths from undetermined causes, and 
unintentional firearm deaths. There are 50,000 such deaths annually 
among U.S. residents; thus the average state will experience 
approximately 1,000 such deaths each year.

                                       Estimate of Annualized Burden Table
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden/
                   Respondents                       Number of      responses/     response  (in   Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent        hours)        (in hours)
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State Health Departments........................              22           1,000             2.5
                                                 -----------------                                        55,000
    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............          55,000
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[[Page 66840]]

    Dated: October 28, 2005.
Betsey Dunaway,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 05-21914 Filed 11-2-05; 8:45 am]
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