[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 17, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11347-11348]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-5657]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: National Immunization Survey Evaluation Study.
    Form Number(s): Numerous.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Burden Hours: 1,445.
    Number of Respondents: 2,695.
    Average Hours Per Response: 32 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: On behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 
U.S. Census Bureau requests authorization of the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) to conduct an evaluation study of an alternative 
sampling methodology for the National Immunization Survey (NIS). The 
purpose of this study is to explore how collaborating with the CDC and 
using the American Community Survey (ACS) as the sampling frame for 
selecting eligible households could result in improvements to the NIS. 
Use of the ACS as a sampling frame, which includes non-landline 
households and also identifies households with age-eligible children, 
would provide a more complete sampling frame for the NIS and could 
substantially reduce data collection costs.
    The NIS is currently a continuing, nationwide random-digit-dialing 
(RDD) landline telephone survey of families with children aged 19 to 35 
months, and teens aged 13-17 years, followed by a mailed survey to 
children's immunization providers. Since the survey's inception to the 
present, private contractors have conducted the NIS for the CDC. 
National, state, and local level estimates of vaccine-specific 
coverage, including newly licensed vaccines, are produced annually.
    The NIS was established to provide an on going, consistent data set 
for analyzing vaccination coverage among young children in the United 
States and disseminating this information to state and local health 
departments and other interested public health partners. One of the 
goals of the 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative was to achieve 
target vaccination coverage levels for 2-year-old children. One of the 
activities for meeting these goals was to improve surveillance for 
vaccine coverage. As a result, funding for the NIS was provided and 
data collection began in April 1994. Subsequently, national Healthy 
People 2000 and 2010 objectives included targets for childhood and 
adolescent vaccination rates. Currently, the NIS provides vaccination 
coverage estimates annually for children aged 19-35 months and teens 
aged 13-17 years, by state and at least six city/county areas. The 
information collected is used to evaluate state and local immunization 
programs, to develop health care policies, and to assist in the 
determination of funding allocations for the Vaccines for Children 
(VFC) program. Since 1994, the VFC program has helped families of 
children who may not otherwise have access to vaccines by providing 
free vaccines to doctors who serve them.
    In recent years, the NIS has covered a decreasing portion of the 
target population as more households rely solely on cell phone 
telephone service. Based on data from January-June 2008 from the 
National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), 29 percent of children under 
three years of age lived in households without landline services. Among 
households with both landline and cell phone service, some may 
primarily use their cell phones and be less likely to respond to calls 
to their landlines. As part of the CDC's continuing effort to evaluate 
and refine the NIS, this study is intended to explore how sampling from 
the ACS for households with age-eligible children having landline, cell 
phone only, and no telephone service could result in improvements to 
the survey, particularly in terms of coverage, response, and cost, and 
whether the ACS and supplemental administrative files can be used to 
identify a sufficient sample of children for national, state and local 
level assessment.
    The NIS is the largest survey ever conducted to assess vaccination 
coverage of young children and adolescents in the U.S. and is used to 
measure and assess changes in vaccination coverage levels over time. 
Also, the NIS helps track progress towards public health immunization 
goals. The purpose of this evaluation study is to determine if using 
the ACS as the frame from which to select the NIS sample will result in 
improvements to the survey, in terms of providing a more complete 
sampling frame, increasing response rates, and decreasing data 
collection costs. The evaluation study will be kept as closely as 
possible to the current NIS to allow comparisons, but plans are to 
incorporate innovations that could be implemented eventually as part of 
a full production survey. With the overall goal of improving response 
rates and coverage, possible experiments could include offering 
incentives to all sampled households or using different versions of the 
advance letter or screener to encourage participation.
    The NIS is an important tool for measuring vaccination coverage 
levels for the nation; however, there are limitations and challenges 
that the current NIS faces. The NIS evaluation study provides the CDC 
with the opportunity to explore some possible changes to the survey 
methodology in an attempt to assess new options and refine current 
methods. One major design change is in the sample selection. The 
current NIS sample is selected by landline RDD, whereas the sample for 
the NIS Evaluation Study is a targeted sample of age-eligible 
respondents drawn from the ACS sample. Using the ACS as the NIS 
sampling frame provides a rich source of data for non-respondents and 
allows for more powerful weighting adjustments. Furthermore, the NIS 
RDD sample is limited to households with landline telephone service. 
However, the Evaluation Study sample will not only include households 
with landline service but also non-landline households (wireless 
service only) and households with no phone service. The information 
collected from the latter two groups will assist the CDC in

[[Page 11348]]

assessing the potential bias in the current NIS estimates from the 
exclusion of these households. However, the success of the evaluation 
is contingent on the Census Bureau's ability to draw sufficient sample 
from the ACS for state and local area estimates.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households; businesses or other 
for-profit.
    Frequency: One time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Section 8 and the 
Public Health Service Act, Title 42, United States Code, Sections 306 & 
2102(a)(7).
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, Room 7845, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
[email protected]).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) 
or email ([email protected]).

    Dated: March 11, 2009.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E9-5657 Filed 3-16-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P