[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 14, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27615-27617]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-11039]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-14-14YI]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of 
its continuing effort to reduce public burden, invites the general 
public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment 
on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. To request more information on the 
below proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information 
collection plan and instruments, call 404-639-7570 or send comments to 
LeRoy Richardson, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send 
an email to [email protected].
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) approval. 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; (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; and (e) 
estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, 
maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information. Burden 
means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by 
persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide information 
to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time needed to review 
instructions; to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and 
systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying 
information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and 
providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to 
a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and 
review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise 
disclose the information. Written comments should be received within 60 
days of this notice.

Proposed Project

    Assessing School-centered HIV/STD Prevention Efforts in a Local 
Education Agency--New--Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), 
National

[[Page 27616]]

Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
    HIV infections remain high among young men who have sex with men. 
The estimated number of new HIV infections increased between 2008 and 
2010 both overall and among MSM ages 13 to 24. Furthermore, sexual risk 
behaviors associated with HIV, other sexually transmitted disease 
(STD), and pregnancy often emerge in adolescence. For example, 2011 
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data revealed 47.4% of 
U.S. high school students reported having had sex, and among those who 
had sex in the previous three months, 39.8% reported having not used a 
condom during last sexual intercourse. In addition, 2001-2009 YRBSS 
data revealed high school students identifying as gay, lesbian, and 
bisexual and those reporting sexual contact with both males and females 
were more likely to engage in sexual risk-taking behaviors than 
heterosexual students.
    Given the disproportionate risk for HIV among YMSM ages 13-24, it 
is important to find ways to reach the younger youth (i.e., ages 13-19) 
in this range to decrease sexual risk behaviors and increase health-
promoting behaviors such as routine HIV testing. Schools provide one 
opportunity for this. United States Census Bureau data suggests that 
because schools enroll more than 22 million teens (ages 14-19) and 
often have existing health and social services infrastructure, schools 
and their staff members are well-positioned to connect youth to a wide 
range of needed services, including housing assistance, support groups, 
and sexual health services such as HIV testing. As a result, CDC's DASH 
has focused a number of HIV and STD prevention efforts on strategies 
that can be implemented in or centered around schools.
    The CDC requests a 3-year OMB approval to conduct a new information 
collection entitled, ``Assessing School-Centered HIV/STD Prevention 
Efforts in a Local Education Agency''. The information collection uses 
a self-administered paper-pencil questionnaire, the Youth Health and 
School Climate Questionnaire, to conduct in-depth assessment of HIV and 
STD prevention efforts that are taking place in one local education 
agency (LEA) funded by CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health 
(DASH) under strategy 4 (School-Centered HIV/STD Prevention for Young 
Men Who Have Sex with Men) of PS13-1308: Promoting Adolescent Health 
through School-Based HIV/STD Prevention and School-Based Surveillance. 
This data collection will provide data and reports for the funded LEA, 
and will allow the LEA to identify areas of the program that are 
working well and other areas that will need additional improvement. In 
addition, the findings will allow CDC to determine the potential impact 
of currently recommended strategies and make changes to those 
recommendations if necessary. The questionnaire will include questions 
on the following topics: demographic information; HIV and STD risk 
behaviors; use of HIV and STD health services; experiences at school, 
including school connectedness, harassment and bullying, homophobia, 
support of LGBTQ students; sexual orientation; receipt of referral for 
HIV and STD prevention health services; and health education.
    This data collection system involves administration of a paper-and-
pencil questionnaire to seven high schools that are participating in 
the HIV/STD prevention project of a local education agency that is 
funded with support from CDC's PS13-1308. The Youth Health and School 
Climate Questionnaire will be administered to approximately 16,500 
students across the seven schools in the years 2014 and 2016. These 
data collection points coincide with the initiation of project 
activities and the mid-way points of the PS13-1308 cooperative 
agreement. We anticipate that each year of data collection will yield 
data from up to 16,500 high school students in grades 9 through 12 at 
the selected school.
    Although some students may take the questionnaire in multiple 
years, this is not a longitudinal design and students' responses will 
not be tracked across the years. No personally identifiable information 
will be collected.
    All students' parents will receive parental consent forms that 
provide them with an opportunity to opt their children out of the 
study. In addition, each student will be given an assent form that 
explains he or she may choose not to take the questionnaire or may skip 
any questions in the questionnaire with no penalty. Participation is 
completely voluntary.
    The estimated burden per response ranges from 35-45 minutes. This 
variation in burden is due to the slight variability in skip patterns 
that may occur with certain responses and variations in the reading 
speed of students. The burden estimates presented here are based on the 
assumption of a 40-minute response time per response. Students in the 
12th grade in fall 2014 will complete the questionnaire only once. It 
is estimated that students in the 9th, 10th, and 11th grade will 
complete the questionnaire in fall of 2014 and again in the spring of 
2016 when they will be 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students. In 
addition, students who are in the 9th grade in spring of 2016 will also 
complete the questionnaire. Annualizing this collection over three 
years results in an estimated annualized burden of 11,000 hours for 
respondents. There are no costs to respondents other than their time.

                            Table A.12-1--Estimated Annualized Burden to Respondents
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                                                                   Number of     Average  burden
         Respondents             Form name        Number of      responses  per    per response    Total burden
                                                 respondents       respondent       (in hours)      (in hours)
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Students in the grades 9-12.  Youth Health             16,500                1            40/60           11,000
                               and School
                               Climate
                               Questionnaire.
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    Total...................  ...............  ...............  ...............  ...............          11,000
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[[Page 27617]]

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. 2014-11039 Filed 5-13-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P