81 FR 3140 - Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 12 (January 20, 2016)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, 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. This notice invites comment on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a state-level survey of health risk behaviors and chronic health conditions. Survey questions are updated each year. The information collection is being revised to incorporate an annual field test of proposed changes prior to their implementation on a broad scale.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 12 (Wednesday, January 20, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3140-3142]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-00938]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60 Day-16-1061; Docket No. CDC-2016-0008]


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 efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, 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. This notice invites comment on the Behavioral 
Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a state-level survey of health 
risk behaviors and chronic health conditions. Survey questions are 
updated each year. The information collection is being revised to 
incorporate an annual field test of proposed changes prior to their 
implementation on a broad scale.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before March 21, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2016-
0008 by any of the following methods:

[[Page 3141]]

    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulation.gov. Follow the instructions 
for submitting comments.
    Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

    Please note: All public comment should be submitted 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 the Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, 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 OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-
up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services 
to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or 
financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, 
disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This 
includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, 
install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of 
collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and 
maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to 
train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of 
information, to search data sources, to complete and review the 
collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the 
information.

Proposed Project

    Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (OMB No. 0920-
1061, exp. 3/31/2018)--Revision--National Center for Chronic Disease 
Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a CDC-
sponsored system of cross-sectional telephone health surveys concerning 
individual health risk behaviors, health conditions, and preventive 
health practices that are associated with chronic diseases, infectious 
diseases, and injury. The BRFSS is administered annually by health 
departments in states, territories, and the District of Columbia 
(collectively referred to as states). An independent sample of 
respondents is drawn for each state. The system is designed to produce 
information that is specific to the public health needs of each 
participating jurisdiction, and for many is the only source of health 
risk data amenable to their uses. Although national estimates of some 
health risk behaviors are available, the methods used to produce 
national estimates do not typically produce the type of detailed 
information needed to plan and implement public health programs; 
moreover, national estimates provide only limited insight into regional 
or state-specific variability in health status and risk factors. Over 
time the BRFSS has developed into an important data collection system 
that federal agencies rely on for state and local health information 
and to track national health objectives such as Healthy People. Through 
the BRFSS partnership, CDC has established standard protocols for BRFSS 
data collection which all states are encouraged to adopt. These 
standards allow for state-to-state data comparisons as well as 
comparisons over time.
    The BRFSS questionnaire is based on modular design principles to 
accommodate a variety of state-specific needs within a common 
framework. All participating states are required to administer a 
standardized core questionnaire which provides a set of shared health 
indicators for all BRFSS partners. The BRFSS core questionnaire 
consists of fixed core, rotating core, and emerging core questions. 
Fixed core questions are asked every year. Rotating core questions 
cycle on and off the core questionnaire during even or odd years, 
depending on the question. Emerging core questions are included in the 
core questionnaire as needed to collect data on urgent or emerging 
health topics such as influenza.
    In addition, the BRFSS includes a series of optional modules on a 
variety of topics. In off-years when the rotating questions are not 
included in the core questionnaire, they are offered to states as an 
optional module. This framework allows each state to produce a 
customized BRFSS survey by appending selected optional modules to the 
core survey. States may select which, if any, optional modules to 
administer. As needed, CDC provides technical and methodological 
assistance to state BRFSS coordinators in the construction of their 
state-specific surveys.
    The CDC and BRFSS partners produce a new set of state-specific 
BRFSS questionnaires each calendar year (i.e., 2016 BRFSS 
questionnaires, 2017 BRFSS questionnaires, etc.). CDC submits an annual 
Change Request to OMB outlining updates to the BRFSS core survey and 
optional modules that have occurred since the previous year. Each state 
administers its BRFSS questionnaire throughout the calendar year. The 
BRFSS partnership thus results in a flexible, coordinated information 
collection system that is adaptive to national and state-specific 
needs.
    The current estimated average burden for the core BRFSS interview 
is 15 minutes. For the optional modules, the estimated average burden 
per response varies by state and year, but is currently estimated at an 
additional 15 minutes. Finally, the BRFSS allows states to customize 
some portions of the questionnaire through the addition of state-added 
questions, which are neither reviewed nor approved by the CDC. State-
added questions are not included in CDC's burden estimates.
    CDC periodically updates the BRFSS core survey and optional modules 
as new modules or emerging core

[[Page 3142]]

questions are adopted. The purpose of this Revision request is to 
incorporate field testing into the approved information collection 
plan.
    Field testing is the final check of changes in the questionnaire 
which have occurred in the preceding year. Field testing is conducted 
in a manner that mimics the full-scale project protocol, to the degree 
that is feasible. Field testing is the final means by which changes are 
made in data collection methods and data collection software is tested. 
Field tests are used to identify problems with instrument documentation 
or instructions, problems with conditional logic (e.g., skip patterns), 
software errors or other implementation and usability issues. Field 
testing is conducted with all new modules, emerging core questions, 
sections which precede and/or follow any new or changed items and 
extant sections which are topically related. This testing is conducted 
to ensure that questions are not perceived as redundant or overlapping. 
Extant sections of the questionnaire unrelated to new items do not 
require testing. The demographic questions on the core BRFSS survey are 
included on each field test.
    Since the field test instrument changes annually, it will be 
submitted to OMB for approval as an additional Change Request prior to 
implementation. Field tests are typically conducted in a single state 
with appropriate computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) 
capability. Individuals who participate in field testing are drawn from 
a different sample than individuals who participate in the BRFSS 
surveys.
    The BRFSS was initially approved with annualized estimates of 
1,643,227 responses and 255,915 burden hours inclusive of the core 
survey and optional modules. CDC is requesting an additional allocation 
of 900 responses and 9,210 burden hours to conduct the annual field 
test. After a brief screening interview, approximately 400 respondents 
per year will be determined ineligible or will decline to participate. 
The estimated burden per response for these respondents is one minute. 
An additional 500 respondents will participate in both the screening 
interview and the actual field test. The estimated burden for these 
respondents is 45 minutes. In years when fewer new questions and/or 
changes are proposed to the BRFSS questionnaire, field testing will 
impose a lesser burden. The revised total annualized estimates are 
1,644,127 responses and 265,125 burden hours.
    Information collection is conducted primarily to support state and 
local health departments, which plan and evaluate public health 
programs at the state or sub-state level. Information collected through 
the BRFSS is also used by the federal government and other entities. 
Participation in the BRFSS and its field test is voluntary and there 
are no costs to respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                     Number of       Number of      burden per     Total burden
      Type of respondents           Form name       respondents    responses per   response (in       (in hr)
                                                                    respondent          hr)
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U.S. General Population.......  Landline                 440,486               1            1/60           7,341
                                 Screener.
                                Cell Phone               223,334               1            1/60           3,722
                                 Screener.
                                Field Test                   400               1            1/60               7
                                 Screener.
Annual Survey                   BRFSS Core               494,650               1           15/60         123,662
 Respondents(Adults >18 Years).  Survey.
                                BRFSS Optional           484,757               1           15/60         121,189
                                 Modules.
Field Test Respondents(Adults   Field Test                   500               1           45/60             375
 >18 Years).                     Survey.
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............         256,296
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2016-00938 Filed 1-19-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P