[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 12 (Thursday, January 19, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2729-2730]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-924]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-12-11JY]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    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) 639-7570 or send an email to 
[email protected]. Send written comments to CDC Desk Officer, Office of 
Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202) 395-
5806. Written comments should be received within 30 days of this 
notice.

Proposed Project

    Barriers to Occupational Injury Reporting by Workers: A NEISS-Work 
Telephone Interview Survey--New--National Institute for Occupational 
Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
(CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Each year about 5,400 workers die from a work-related injury and 4 
million private industry workers report a nonfatal injury or illness. 
There are 3.4 million workers treated in U.S. hospital emergency 
departments annually for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses 
[1]. Although studies indicate that we have reduced the number of 
nonfatal injuries in recent decades, there is evidence that nonfatal 
occupational injury surveillance significantly underreports workplace 
injuries. This presumed undercount potentially decreases health and 
safety funding because of a false sense of improvement and increases 
the misdirection of scarce safety and health resources. It is this 
basic need for reliable and comprehensive occupational injury 
surveillance that led to the 1987 National Academy of

[[Page 2730]]

Science report Counting Injuries and Illnesses in the Workplace--
Proposals for a Better System [6] and the 2008 Congressional report 
Hidden Tragedy: Underreporting of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses [1].
    The proposed pilot research addresses two facets of nonfatal 
occupational injury reporting noted in these reports--understanding 
barriers and incentives to reporting occupational injuries and using 
this knowledge to assess and improve our surveillance activities. The 
objectives of this project are to (1) Characterize and quantify the 
relative importance of incentives and disincentives to self-identifying 
work-relatedness at the time of medical treatment and to employers; (2) 
characterize individual and employment characteristics that are 
associated with non-reporting of workplace injuries and incentives and 
disincentives to reporting; (3) test the reliability of hospital 
abstractors to properly distinguish between work-related and non-work-
related injuries; and (4) evaluate the feasibility, need, and 
requirements for a future larger study.
    This project will use the occupational and the all injuries 
supplements to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System 
(NEISS-Work and NEISS-AIP, respectively) to identify telephone 
interview survey participants. NEISS-Work and NEISS-AIP, collected by 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), capture people who were 
treated in the emergency department (ED) for a work-related illness or 
injury (NEISS-Work) or any injury, regardless of work-relatedness 
(NEISS-AIP). Interview respondents will come from two subgroups--
individuals treated for a work-related injury and individuals who were 
treated for a non-work-related injury but who were employed during the 
time period that the injury occurred.
    Data collection for the telephone interview survey will be done via 
a questionnaire. This questionnaire contains questions about the 
respondent's injury that sent them to the ED, the characteristics of 
the job they were working when they were injured, their experiences 
reporting their injury to the ED and their employer (if applicable), 
and their beliefs about the process and subsequent consequences of 
reporting an injury. The questionnaire was designed to take 30 minutes 
to complete. Individuals who were not employed at the time the injury 
occurred or was made worse; who are younger than age 20 or older than 
age 64; who do not speak English; who were employed on a farm or ranch 
or were self-employed, an independent contractor, or a day laborer at 
the time of injury; who did not experience an acute injury; or who 
missed more than three days from work because of the injury will be 
screened out at the beginning of the interview.
    Approximately 1200 interviews will be completed over the two year 
period of the study. The only cost to the respondent will be the cost 
of their time spent on the phone completing the telephone interview 
survey. The estimated annualized burden hours are 300.

                    Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Average
                                              No. of        burden per
           Type of respondent               respondents    response  (in
                                                              hours)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. workers presenting to an emergency              600           30/60
 department.............................
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    Dated: January 12, 2012.
Kimberly Lane,
Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2012-924 Filed 1-18-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P