[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 11, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8188-8189]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-02917]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-14-0607]


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 404-639-7570 or 
send comments to LeRoy Richardson, at 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 (NVDRS) (0920-0607, 
Expiration 12/31/2015)--Revision--National Center for Injury Prevention 
and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Violence is an important public health problem. In the United 
States, suicide and homicide 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, or information 
obtainable from the standard death certificate. Death certificates, 
however, carry no information about key facts necessary for prevention 
such as the relationship of the victim and suspect and the 
circumstances of the deaths. Furthermore, death certificates are 
typically available 20 months after the completion of a single calendar 
year. Official publications of national violent death rates, e.g. those 
in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use data that is less 
than two years old.
    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 in fact much more common than homicides. The FBI's 
Supplemental Homicide Report (SHRs) does collect basic information 
about the victim-suspect relationship and circumstances related to the 
homicide. SHRs do not link violent deaths that are part of one incident 
such as homicide-suicides. It also is a voluntary system in which some 
10-20 percent of police departments nationwide do not participate.
    The FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) provides 
slightly more information than SHRs, but it covers less of the country 
than SHRs. NIBRS also only provides data regarding homicides. Also, the 
Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports does provide data that is less 
than two years old.
    CDC requests Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval in 
order to revise its state-based surveillance system for violent deaths 
that will provide more detailed and timely information.
    The surveillance system captures case record information held by 
medical examiners/coroners, vital statistics (i.e., death 
certificates), and law enforcement, including crime labs. Data is 
collected by each state in the system and entered into a web system 
administered by 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 
will guide states in designing, targeting, and evaluating programs that 
reduce multiple forms of violence.
    Neither victim's families nor suspects are contacted to collect 
this information; it all comes from existing records and is collected 
by state health department staff or their subcontractors.
    The number of hours per death required for the public agencies 
working with NVDRS states to retrieve and then refile their records is 
estimated to be 0.5 hours per death. Moving forward, we will no longer 
include state abstractors' time spent abstracting data in our estimates 
of public burden for NVDRS because state abstractors are funded by CDC 
to do this work. This significantly reduces the estimated public burden 
associated with NVDRS.
    The president has submitted plans to fund the expansion of the 
state-based surveillance system to collect information in all 50 U.S. 
states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. This revision 
will allow 32 new state health departments, the health department of 
the District of Columbia, and 8 territorial governments to be added to 
the currently funded 18 state health departments, resulting in a total 
of 59 states and territories to be included in the state-based 
surveillance system.
    Violent deaths include all homicides, suicides, legal 
interventions, deaths from undetermined causes, and unintentional 
firearm deaths. The average state will experience approximately 1,000 
such deaths each year.
    Moving forward, we will no longer include state abstractors' time 
spent abstracting data in our estimates of public burden for NVDRS 
because state abstractors are funded by CDC to do this work. This 
significantly reduces the

[[Page 8189]]

estimated public burden associated with NVDRS.
    There are no costs to respondents other than their time.

                                                            Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                                          Number of      Avenue  burden
               Type of respondents                             Form name                 Number of      responses  per   per  response     Total burden
                                                                                        respondents       respondent       (in hrs.)        (in hrs.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Agencies.................................  Retrieving and refile records.....              59            1,000              0.5           29,500
ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½ï¿½
    Total.......................................  ..................................  ...............  ...............  ...............          29,500
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LeRoy Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2014-02917 Filed 2-10-14; 8:45 am]
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