[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 175 (Friday, September 11, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46777-46778]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-21913]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-09-09CK]


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 404-639-5960 
and send comments to Maryam I. Daneshvar, CDC Acting Reports Clearance 
Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an e-mail 
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

    Asthma Information Reporting System (AIRS)--New--Air Pollution and 
Respiratory Health Branch (APRHB), National Center for Environmental 
Health (NCEH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)).

Background and Brief Description

    In 1999, the CDC began developing its National Asthma Control 
Program, a population-based, public health approach to addressing the 
burden of asthma. The program supports the goals and objectives of 
``Healthy People 2010'' for asthma and is based on the public health 
principles of surveillance, partnerships, and interventions. This data 
collection request will provide NCEH with routine information, through 
a semi-annual Management Information System, AIRS, about the activities 
and performance of the state and territorial grantees funded under the 
National Asthma Control Program.
    The primary purpose of the National Asthma Control Program is to 
develop program capacity to address asthma from a public health 
perspective to bring about: (1) A focus on asthma-related activity 
within states; (2) an increased understanding of asthma-related data 
and its application to program planning and evaluation through the 
development and maintenance of an ongoing asthma surveillance system; 
(3) an increased recognition, within the public health structure of 
states, of the potential to use a public health approach to reduce the 
burden of asthma; (4) linkages of state health agencies to other 
agencies and organizations addressing asthma in the population; and (5) 
implementation of interventions to achieve positive health impacts, 
such as reducing the number of deaths, hospitalizations, emergency 
department visits, school or work days missed, and limitations on 
activity due to asthma.
    The proposed AIRS management information system will be comprised 
of multiple components that enable the electronic reporting of three 
types of

[[Page 46778]]

data/information from state asthma control programs: (1) Information 
that is currently collected as part of interim (semi-annual) and end-
of-year progress reporting, (2) Aggregate level reports of surveillance 
data on long-term program outcomes, and (3) Specific data indicative of 
progress made on: Partnerships, surveillance, interventions, and 
evaluation.
    Currently, data is collected on an interim (semi-annual) basis from 
state asthma control programs as part of regular reporting of 
cooperative agreement activities. Programs report information such as 
progress to date on accomplishing intended objectives, programmatic 
changes, changes to staffing or management, and budgetary information. 
Regularly reporting this information is a requirement of the co-
operative agreement mechanism utilized to fund state asthma control 
programs. Information in this section will be consistent with previous 
reporting by states through Grants.gov. States will be required to 
submit interim (semi-annual) and year-end progress report information 
into AIRS, thus this type of programmatic information on activities and 
objectives will be collected twice per year (interim report and end-of-
year report).
    The National Asthma Control Program at CDC has access to and 
analyzes national-level asthma surveillance data (http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/asthmadata.htm). With the exception of data from the Behavioral 
Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), analyses cannot be conducted 
at the level of the state. Therefore, as part of AIRS, state asthma 
control programs will be asked to submit aggregate surveillance data to 
allow calculation of state asthma surveillance indicators across all 
funded states (where data is available) in a standardized manner. Data 
likely to be requested through this system include: Hospital discharges 
(with asthma as first listed diagnosis), and emergency department 
visits (with asthma as first listed diagnosis). States will be required 
to submit this information into AIRS once per year, in conjunction with 
the end of year reporting of activities and objectives, described 
above.
    National and state asthma surveillance data provide information 
useful to examining progress on long-term outcomes of state asthma 
programs. To identify appropriate indicators of program implementation 
and short-term outcomes, CDC convened and facilitated workgroups 
comprised of state asthma control program representatives over the 
course of two years. In collaboration with these workgroups, the CDC 
generated specific questions (qualitative and quantitative in nature) 
intended to collect data on key features of state asthma control 
programs: Partnerships, surveillance, interventions, and evaluation. 
States will be asked to provide answers to these questions once per 
year in conjunction with the end of year reporting of activities and 
objectives, described above. These data will be used to foster a 
continuous learning environment about what is working in state asthma 
programs and to identify potential areas for improvement.
    There will be no cost for grantees to participate in AIRS.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     Number of    Average burden
      Type of respondents             Forms          Number of     responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent      (in hours)      (in hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Health Departments......  Interim report                36               1               2              72
                                 on activities
                                 and objectives.
                                End of year                   36               1               6             216
                                 report on
                                 activities,
                                 objectives and
                                 aggregate
                                 surveillance.
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................              36               2               8             288
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    Dated: September 3, 2009.
Maryam I. Daneshvar,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. E9-21913 Filed 9-10-09; 8:45 am]
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