[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 79 (Wednesday, April 26, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19247-19248]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-08400]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Request for Comment on the NSDUH Redesign

AGENCY: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 
(SAMHSA), HHS.

ACTION: Request for comment.

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SUMMARY: This document is a request for comment on National Survey on 
Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) redesign. The Department of Health and 
Human Services, as part of its continuing effort to produce current 
data, as well as reduce paperwork and respondent 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.

DATES: Comment Close Date: To be considered, comments must be received 
at the addresses provided below no later than 60 calendar days from the 
date of publication in the Federal Register.

ADDRESSES: You may submit electronic comments to 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Inspection of Public Comments: Comments 
submitted in response to this notice will be used in the development of 
specific survey redesign options. Comments, including any personally 
identifiable or confidential business information included in comments 
submitted in response to this notice, will be summarized and/or 
included in NSDUH redesign reports.

Background

    NSDUH is a national survey of the U.S. civilian, non-
institutionalized population aged 12 or older. The NSDUH data 
collection is essential for meeting a critical objective of SAMHSA's 
mission--to maintain current data on the prevalence of substance use 
and mental health problems in the United States. NSDUH is authorized by 
Section 505 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 290aa-4--Data 
Collection) which authorizes annual data collection for monitoring the 
prevalence of illicit substance use and mental health problems, as well 
as the misuse of licit substances in the U.S. population. NSDUH was 
conducted on a periodic basis from 1971 to 1988 and has been conducted 
annually since 1990.
    Information collected through NSDUH has multiple applications, 
including (1) advancing the study of the epidemiology of substance use 
and mental health; (2) monitoring substance use and mental health 
trends and patterns; (3) identifying licit and illicit substances being 
used and misused; (4) studying the use of health care resources for 
treatment of substance use disorders and mental health problems; (5) 
assisting Federal, State and local agencies in the allocation of 
resources; and (6) supporting the proper design and implementation of 
substance misuse prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation programs. In 
order to continue meeting data users' needs, SAMHSA's Center for 
Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality (CBHSQ) must periodically 
update NSDUH content and methodology to reflect the changing field of 
substance use and mental health along with data collection best 
practices. Any redesign will help to ensure NSDUH continues to produce 
accurate and current data with efficiency.

Redesign Issues for NSDUH

    It is important for NSDUH to remain policy relevant and to be a 
source of reliable information. The impetus for any future NSDUH 
redesign is to ensure that NSDUH continues to capture substance use, 
substance use disorder, and mental health concepts accurately, 
precisely, and in ways that reflect the state of the field as it 
advances (e.g., updating, adding and removing content to reflect 
evolving data needs; adapting new approaches for reducing nonresponse). 
In addition, the redesigned NSDUH should track trends from its 
inception onward and have flexibility to address changing data needs, 
to adjust to shifting budgets and to allow occasional adjustments to 
the sample and questionnaire without putting trend data at risk.

[[Page 19248]]

    A redesign for NSDUH will require considerable effort and will 
break trends with earlier NSDUH data where new estimates could not be 
compared to those from previous years. It is essential to take 
sufficient time to develop and validate any redesigned measures to 
avoid the need for further near-term changes with the potential for 
additional, unanticipated breaks in data trends. The last partial 
redesign was implemented in 2015. SAMHSA is now exploring the 
possibility of another redesign sometime in the future.

Request for Comments

    This notice is a general solicitation of comments from the public. 
Proposed changes should meet the following criteria:
     Because NSDUH is a general population survey and includes 
individuals 12 years and older, questions must be understandable to a 
person with a 6th grade reading level.
     Each question must have analytic utility. That is, 
questions must be useful either to estimate prevalence or as a key 
component in statistical analyses, such as studies of the potential 
impact of policies.
     Questions must apply to enough respondents that precise 
estimation is possible (i.e., behaviors, experiences and attitudes must 
be prevalent enough to ensure reliable estimates).
     Questions should generate data for aggregated analyses, 
not to assess the efficacy of a particular treatment program.
     Questions should be useful in tracking trends or changes 
in treatment behavior even when policies change.
     When adding new questions, current questions must be 
identified for deletion, so there is no increase in respondent burden; 
survey administration time should average no more than 1 hour.
     Any new questions should be administrable according to 
NSDUH survey procedures and as part of the redesigned NSDUH 
questionnaire. Under current practices, this means new questions would 
be administered using audio computer-assisted self-interviewing 
[ACASI]), allow no parent proxy reports for youth respondents, and 
entail no special sampling requirements or changes to household 
screening questions.
     Any changes would be made at the beginning of any future 
redesign, and will not be changed again until the next redesign in 
order to be able to maintain trend data.
    Issues of interest for public comment include but are not limited 
to the following:

 Timing of redesign since it will lead to a break in trends 
across the board
 Whether and which questionnaire topic areas will add to the 
utility of the NSDUH
 Potential barriers in developing questions for identified 
questionnaire topic areas
 Additional topic areas of interest
 Topics and questions to drop from the NSDUH
 Input on feasibility, cost, data accuracy and data 
completeness for questionnaire and methodological revisions under 
consideration

    All comments should be received by June 26, 2017.

Summer King,
Statistician.
[FR Doc. 2017-08400 Filed 4-25-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4162-20-P