[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 178 (Friday, September 17, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51892-51893]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-20155]



[[Page 51892]]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-21-21HZ; Docket No. CDC-2021-0097]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or 
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed 
information collection project titled Reducing Fatigue Among Taxi 
Drivers. The goal of the proposed collection is to evaluate two 
interventions, a training and a wrist-device that provides personalized 
daily fatigue scores, designed to enable taxi drivers to reduce their 
fatigue levels. This research study involves two parts: Development of 
a fatigue management eLearning training tool designed for drivers-for-
hire (e.g., taxi drivers; ride sourcing drivers); and an evaluation of 
the effectiveness of this training alone and paired with the wrist-
device that provides personalized daily fatigue scores.

DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before November 16, 
2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2021-
0097 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE, H21-8, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments 
to Regulations.gov.
    Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking 
portal (regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection 
Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton 
Road NE, H21-8, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to the OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
    1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected;
    4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submissions of responses; and
    5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

    Reducing Fatigue Among Taxi Drivers--New--National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Taxi drivers routinely work long hours and late night or early 
morning shifts. Shift work and long work hours are linked to many 
health and safety risks due to disturbances to sleep and circadian 
rhythms. Fatigue is a significant contributor to transportation-related 
injuries, most notably among shift workers. Such work schedules and 
inadequate sleep likely contribute to health issues and injuries among 
taxi drivers, who experience a roadway fatality rate 3.5 times higher 
than all civilian workers and had the highest rate of nonfatal work-
related motor vehicle injuries treated in emergency departments. The 
urban and interurban transportation industry ranks the third highest in 
costs per employee for motor vehicle crashes. Tired drivers endanger 
others on the road (e.g., other drivers, passengers, bicyclists, 
pedestrians) in addition to themselves and their passengers. An 
important approach to reducing fatigue-related risks is to inform 
employers and taxi drivers about the risks and strategies to reduce 
their risks. The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate a 
training program to inform taxi drivers, and other drivers for hire who 
transport passengers, of the risks linked to shift work and long work 
hours and evaluate strategies for taxi drivers to reduce these risks.
    The proposed study site will be the Flywheel Taxi Company in San 
Francisco, with approximately 500 drivers, who have agreed to share 
data collected on the study participants. The recruitment of 180 study 
participants and data collection onsite will be performed by a NIOSH 
contractor trained by the NIOSH project personnel. This research study 
involves two parts: Development of a fatigue management eLearning 
Training Tool designed for drivers-for-hire (e.g., taxi drivers; ride 
sourcing drivers); and an evaluation of the use of this tool as an 
intervention. The training tool will educate drivers about fatigue as a 
risk factor for motor vehicle crashes, the negative health and safety 
effects of fatigue, and how to reduce fatigue by improving sleep, 
health, nutrition, and work schedules. There will be pre- and post-
module knowledge tests to evaluate the training. The training will be 
offered online, free of charge, and will be viewable on multiple 
platforms (e.g., smartphone, tablet, laptop). All participants will 
also wear a wristband actigraph used to measure sleep/wake cycles, 
which will serve as a second intervention. The actigraph data will 
provide a personalized daily measure of fatigue each participant can 
use as an external prompt to assess individual fatigue levels and 
trigger self-reflection on fitness to drive and act accordingly. A 
randomized pre-post with control group longitudinal study design will 
evaluate

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the training and the driver's response to feedback from the actigraph. 
Specifically, there are two intervention groups: (1) Training plus 
actigraph fatigue level feedback and (2) training only with wearing 
actigraph but no fatigue level feedback. The control group will receive 
neither training nor feedback on fatigue levels from their actigraph. 
Participants will complete a baseline and follow-up Work and Health 
survey, sleep and activities diaries, and sleep health knowledge 
questions during each of 5 observation periods. The Work and Health 
survey administered in the first observation period will be more 
comprehensive and the abbreviated follow up Work and Health surveys 
administered for the remaining observation periods will serve to 
capture only responses to questions that can change from one 
observation period to the next. Only participants randomly selected to 
take the training will complete a training evaluation survey used to 
strengthen the training's effectiveness. Data will also be collected 
from company installed in-vehicle monitoring systems on safety critical 
events (e.g., hard braking, speeding) already collected on all drivers 
as a direct measurement of fatigue-related driving performance events 
used to validate self-report data. As part of their daily sleep and 
health diaries drivers will be asked to complete three-minute 
psychomotor vigilance tests (PVTs) five times throughout the day, to 
directly measure alertness using an app installed on an electronic 
device. At the end of the data collection period the training will be 
offered to the remaining study participants who will be provided an 
opportunity, but no remuneration, to complete the training and training 
survey.
    Study staff will use the findings from this evaluation to improve 
the training program, including content and delivery, as well as 
compare fatigue between intervention groups. Potential impacts of this 
project include improvements in work behaviors for coping with shift 
work and long work hours and an objective reduction in fatigue compared 
to the control groups. This project is poised to have considerable 
impact in the contribution of an evidence base for effective 
interventions that could be used by other taxi companies and drivers 
for ride sourcing companies to promote strategies in road safety.
    The burden table lists that 120 of the 180 taxi drivers in the 
study will complete the online training and evaluation (approximately 
three hours). All drivers (180) will complete the Work and Health 
survey, and the knowledge survey each week of the study (five times 
each per participant). Each participant will complete the sleep and 
activity diary five times a day, each day for 35 days (175 times total) 
which will require approximately two minutes for each response. There 
will also be three meetings for recruitment and enrollment (once), 
fitting the actigraph (weekly), and a final meeting (weekly). The total 
estimated annualized burden is anticipated to be 2,700 hours. There are 
no costs to participants other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
      Type of respondents           Form name        Number of     responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent      (in hours)      (in hours)
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Taxi Drivers..................  Online Training              120               1               3             360
                                 & Evaluation.
                                Sleep &                      180             175            2/60           1,050
                                 Activities
                                 Diary.
                                Work & Health                180               5           45/60             675
                                 Survey.
                                Knowledge survey             180               5           15/60             225
                                Recruitment &                180               1           30/60              90
                                 Informed
                                 Consent.
                                Initial Meeting              180               5           10/60             150
                                 (Fit Actigraph).
                                10-minute                    180               5           10/60             150
                                 meeting (turn
                                 in devices,
                                 turn in diary,
                                 receive
                                 remuneration).
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............           2,700
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2021-20155 Filed 9-16-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P