[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 210 (Wednesday, November 1, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74983-74984]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-24063]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Air Force

[Docket ID: USAF-2023-HQ-0007]


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Department of the Air Force, Department of Defense (DoD).

ACTION: 30-Day information collection notice.

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SUMMARY: The DoD has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by December 
1, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angela Duncan, 571-372-7574 [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: Qualitative Study of 
Factors that Influence Healthcare Seeking in Pilots; OMB Control Number 
0701-TPHB.
    Type of Request: New.
    Number of Respondents: 100.
    Responses per Respondent: 1.
    Annual Responses: 100.
    Average Burden per Response: 48 minutes.
    Annual Burden Hours: 80.
    Needs and Uses: Information collection via semi-structured 
interviews is necessary to conduct a qualitative study of US Air Force 
active duty pilots, US Air Force trainee pilots, civilian collegiate 
aviation students, and commercial airline pilots. Data collection will 
focus on the following: (1) factors that negatively influence 
healthcare utilization and aeromedical disclosure during screening, (2) 
factors that support healthcare utilization and aeromedical disclosure 
during screening, and (3) factors that can be modified to address pilot 
healthcare avoidance from a pilot's perspective to inform future 
prospective research. This study has been approved as part of the FY22 
Studies and Analysis (S&A) Portfolio by the Commander of the United 
States School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM). The Air Force Aerospace 
and Operational Medicine (AO) Panel (lead by the AFMRA/SG3P) provides 
baseline S&A funds to USAFSAM to address urgent and near-term needs, 
issues, and consultative questions that arise from installations, the 
Aerospace Medicine Community (Team-SGP) and Line of the Air Force 
senior leadership and commanders that are appropriate for one-year, 
short term investigative work.
    Aircraft pilots are required to meet certain medical standards in 
order to function as a required aircrew member. If a pilot develops a 
new symptom or condition and discloses it during aeromedical screening, 
the pilot runs the risk of temporary or permanent loss of their flying 
status. This can result in negative occupational, social, and financial 
repercussions for the pilot. For this reason, it has been hypothesized 
that a subset of pilots participates in healthcare avoidance or does 
not fully disclose during aeromedical screening due to fear for 
aeromedical certificate loss. Evolving data is beginning to clarify the 
vast scope of this issue. A recent publication of over 3,500 US pilots 
showed that 56.1% of pilots reported a history of healthcare avoidance 
behavior due to fear for loss of aeromedical certification (1). More 
concerning, 60.1% of another sample of US pilots reported delaying or 
forgoing medical care due to fear for loss of flying status (2). 
Healthcare avoidance in aircraft pilots due to fear for loss of flying 
status may be prevalent, but many unanswered questions remain about 
factors that influence healthcare utilization and medical disclosure 
during aeromedical screening.
    Research on pilot healthcare avoidance is critical to maintain 
military readiness for the following reasons: (1) optimizing existing 
medical assets increases the efficiency and effectiveness of 
warfighting capability without increased investment; (2) early 
presentation to medical care can increase the operational career and 
medical readiness of pilots, resulting in increased readiness efficacy 
and cost savings; and (3) research on pilots can inform how the 
aeromedical system supports this generation of pilots in the future 
(this population of pilots is hypothesized to have different healthcare 
preferences and behaviors from previous generations of pilots).
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: Once.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    OMB Desk Officer: Ms. Jasmeet Seehra.
    You may also submit comments and recommendations, identified by 
Docket ID number and title, by the following method:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency 
name, Docket ID number, and title for this Federal Register document. 
The general policy

[[Page 74984]]

for comments and other submissions from members of the public is to 
make these submissions available for public viewing on the internet at 
http://www.regulations.gov as they are received without change, 
including any personal identifiers or contact information.
    DoD Clearance Officer: Ms. Angela Duncan.
    Requests for copies of the information collection proposal should 
be sent to Ms. Duncan at [email protected].

    Dated: October 24, 2023.
Aaron T. Siegel,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2023-24063 Filed 10-31-23; 8:45 am]
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