[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 33 (Friday, February 17, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10337-10338]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-03319]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-23-23CO; Docket No. CDC-2023-0011]


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 information 
collection, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This 
notice invites comment on a proposed information collection project 
titled the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Rapid Surveys 
System (RSS). The RSS is a new survey system being designed to 
complement the current household survey systems at NCHS. The RSS will 
use survey data from probability-based online panels to produce time-
sensitive estimates of new and emerging public health topics, 
attitudes, and behaviors.

DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before April 18, 2023.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2023-
0011 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.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, MS 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 www.regulations.gov.
    Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking 
portal (www.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, MS H21-8, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; Telephone: 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

    National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Rapid Surveys System 
(RSS)--New--National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Section 306 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act (42 U.S.C.), as 
amended, authorizes that the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
(HHS), acting through NCHS, collect data about

[[Page 10338]]

the health of the population of the United States. The NCHS Rapid 
Surveys System (RSS) will collect data on emerging public health 
topics, attitudes, and behaviors using cross-sectional samples from two 
commercially available, national probability-based online panels. The 
RSS will then combine these data to form estimates that approximate 
national representation in ways that many data collection approaches 
cannot. The RSS is intended to collect data in contexts in which 
decision makers' need for time-sensitive data of known quality about 
emerging and priority health concerns is a higher priority than their 
need for statistically unbiased estimates.
    The RSS will complement NCHS's current household survey systems. As 
quicker turnaround surveys that require less accuracy and precision 
than CDC's more rigorous population representative surveys, the RSS 
will incorporate multiple mechanisms to carefully evaluate the 
resulting survey data for its appropriateness for use in public health 
surveillance and research (e.g., hypothesis generating) and facilitate 
continuous quality improvement by supplementing these panels with 
intensive efforts to understand how well the estimates reflect 
populations at most risk. The RSS data dissemination strategy will 
communicate the strengths and limitations of data collected through 
online probability panels as compared to more robust data collection 
methods.
    The RSS has three major goals: (1) to provide CDC and other 
partners with time-sensitive data of known quality about emerging and 
priority health concerns; (2) to use these data collections to continue 
NCHS's evaluation of the quality of public health estimates generated 
from commercial online panels; and (3) to improve methods to 
communicate the appropriateness of public health estimates generated 
from commercial online panels.
    Each round's questionnaire will consist of four main components: 
(1) basic demographic information on respondents to be used as 
covariates in analyses; (2) new, emerging, or supplemental content 
proposed by NCHS, other CDC Centers, Institute, and Offices, and other 
HHS agencies; (3) questions used for calibrating the survey weights; 
and (4) additional content selected by NCHS to evaluate against 
relevant benchmarks. NCHS will use questions from components (1) and 
(2) to provide relevant, timely data on new, emerging, and priority 
health topics to be used for decision making. NCHS will use questions 
from components (3) and (4) to weight and evaluate the quality of the 
estimates coming from questions in component (1) and (2). Components 
(1) and (2) will contain different topics in each round of the survey.
    The RSS is designed to have four rounds of data collection each 
year with two contractors. A cross-sectional nationally representative 
sample will be drawn from the online probability panel maintained by 
each of the contractors. A separate 30-day OMB package and Federal 
Register notice with the draft data collection instrument will be 
submitted for each round of data collection. As part of the base 
(minimum sample size), each round of data collection will collect 2,000 
responses per quarter. The RSS can be expanded by increasing the number 
of completed responses per round and/or the number of rounds per year 
as needed up to a maximum of 28,000 responses per year per contractor 
or 56,000 total responses per year. Additionally, each data collection 
may include up to 2,000 additional responses per quarter (8,000 for the 
year) to improve representativeness. This increases the maximum burden 
by up to 16,000 responses per year. The RSS may also target individual 
surveys to collect data only from specific subgroups within existing 
survey panels and may supplement data collection for such groups with 
additional respondents from other probability or nonprobability 
samples. An additional 12,000 responses per year may be used for these 
developmental activities. Survey questions being asked of the panelists 
will be cognitively tested. This cognitive testing will help survey 
users interpret the findings by understanding how respondents answer 
each question.
    CDC requests OMB approval for an estimated 28,080 burden hours 
annually over the course of the three-year approval. There are no costs 
to respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                 Type of survey                      Number of     responses per   per response    Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent      (in hours)         hours
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Base Surveys....................................          16,000               1           20/60           5,333
Potential Sample Expansion......................          40,000               1           20/60          13,334
Additional Surveys to Increase                            16,000               1           20/60           5,333
 Representativeness.............................
Developmental: Additional Surveys for Specific            12,000               1           20/60           4,000
 Subgroups......................................
Cognitive Interviews............................              80               1               1              80
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............          28,080
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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. 2023-03319 Filed 2-16-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P