[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 218 (Tuesday, November 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78039-78040]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-25086]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-24-1408]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received approval from the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct Rapid Surveys System 
(RSS)(OMB Control No. 0920-1408), which includes fielding four surveys 
per year. The 06/30/2022 date clearance approved the Round 1 survey. A 
second round of the RSS was additionally approved. In accordance with 
the Terms of Clearance NCHS will publish a 30-day Federal Register 
Notice announcing each new survey so that public comments can be 
received about the specific content of each survey. This notice 
includes specific details about the questions that would be asked in 
the third round of the RSS and serves to allow 30 days for public and 
affected agency comments, consistent with OMB's terms of clearance.
    CDC will accept all comments for this proposed information 
collection project. The Office of Management and Budget is particularly 
interested in comments that:
    (a) 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;
    (b) Evaluate the accuracy of the agencies estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (c) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected;
    (d) 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 submission of responses; and
    (e) Assess information collection costs.
    To request additional information on the proposed project or to 
obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, call 
(404) 639-7570. 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. Direct 
written comments and/or suggestions regarding the items contained in 
this notice to the Attention: CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management 
and Budget, 725 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202) 
395-5806. Provide written comments within 30 days of notice 
publication.

Proposed Project

    National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Rapid Surveys System 
(RSS) Round 3 (OMB Control No. 0920-1408)--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 the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), 
acting through the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), to 
collect data about the health of the population of the United States. 
Rapid Surveys System (RSS)(OMB Control No. 0920-1408) collects data on 
emerging public health topics, attitudes, and behaviors using cross-
sectional samples from two commercially available, national 
probability-based online panels. The RSS then combines these data to 
form estimates that approximate national representation in ways that 
many data collection approaches cannot. The RSS collects 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 complements 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 
incorporates multiple mechanisms to carefully evaluate the resulting 
survey data for their appropriateness for use in public health 
surveillance and research (e.g., hypothesis generating) and facilitates 
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 
communicates 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

[[Page 78040]]

online panels. The RSS is designed to have four rounds of data 
collection each year with data being collected by two contractors with 
probability panels. A cross-sectional nationally representative sample 
will be drawn from the online probability panel maintained by each of 
the contractors. 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 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.
    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 Components 1 and 2. Components 1 and 2 will 
contain different topics in each round of the survey. NCHS submits a 
30-day Federal Register Notice with information on the contents of each 
round of data collection.
    NCHS calibrates survey weights from the RSS to gold standard 
surveys. Questions used for calibration in this round of RSS will 
include marital status, employment, social and work limitations, use of 
the internet in general and for medical reasons, telephone use, civic 
engagement, and language used at home and in other settings. All these 
questions have been on the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in 
prior years allowing calibration to these data.
    Finally, all RSS rounds will include several questions that were 
previously on NHIS for benchmarking to evaluate data quality. Panelists 
in the RSS will be asked about health status; chronic conditions; 
disability; healthcare access and utilization; health behaviors; and 
food insecurity.
    The estimated total annual burden hours for the three-year approval 
period remains at 28,079 burden hours. The NCHS RSS Round 3 (2024) data 
collection is based on 13,100 complete surveys (4,367 hours) and 20 
cognitive interviews (20 hours) using the same survey instrument for a 
total of 4,387 hours. There are no costs to respondents other than 
their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                      Average
                                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per
          Type of respondents                   Form name           respondents    responses per   response  (in
                                                                                    respondent        hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adults 18+............................  Survey: NCHS RSS Round 3          13,100               1           20/60
Adult 18+.............................  Cognitive Interviews....              20               1               1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Public Health 
Ethics and Regulations, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2023-25086 Filed 11-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P