[Federal Register: September 18, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 181)]
[Notices]
[Page 54732-54733]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18se03-62]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[30Day-70-03]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 498-1210. Send written
comments to CDC, Desk Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, New
Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax
to (202) 395-6974. Written comments should be received within 30 days
of this notice.
Proposed Project: The National Violent Death Reporting System--
New--National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[[Page 54733]]
Violence is an important public health problem. In the United
States, homicide and suicide are the second and third leading causes of
death, respectively, in the 1-34 year old age group.
Unfortunately, public health agencies don't know much more about
the problem than the numbers and the sex, race, and age of the victims,
all information obtainable from the standard death certificate. Death
certificates, however, carry no information about key facts necessary
for prevention such as the relationship of the victim and suspect and
the circumstances of the deaths, thereby making it impossible to
discern anything but the gross contours of the problem. Furthermore,
death certificates are typically available 20 months after the
completion of a single calendar year. Official publications of national
violent death rates, e.g. those in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report, rarely use data that is less than two years old. Public health
interventions aimed at a moving target last seen two years ago may well
miss the mark.
Local and federal criminal justice agencies such as the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more information about
homicides, but they do not routinely collect standardized data about
suicides, which are in fact much more common than homicides. The FBI's
Supplemental Homicide Report system (SHRs) does collect basic
information about the victim-suspect relationship and circumstances,
like death certificates, it does not link violent deaths that are part
of one incident such as homicide-suicides. It also is a voluntary
system in which some 10-20 percent of police departments nationwide do
not participate. The FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System
(NIBRS) addresses some of these deficiencies, but it covers less of the
country than SHRs, still includes only homicides, and collects only
police information. Also, the Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports do
not use data that is less than two years old.
CDC therefore proposes to start a state-based surveillance systems
for violent deaths that will provide more detailed and timely
information. It will tap into the case records held by medical
examiners/coroners, police, and crime labs. Data will be collected
centrally by each state in the system, stripped of identifiers, and
then sent to the CDC. Information will be collected from these records
about the characteristics of the victims and suspects, the
circumstances of the deaths, and the weapons involved. States will use
standardized data elements and software designed by CDC. Ultimately,
this information will guide states in designing programs that reduce
multiple forms of violence.
Neither victim families nor suspects are contacted to collect this
information. It all comes from existing records and is collected by
state health department staff or their subcontractors. Health
departments incur an average of 2.5 hours per death in identifying the
deaths from death certificates, contacting the police and medical
examiners to get copies of or to view the relevant records, abstracting
all the records, various data processing tasks, various administrative
tasks, data utilization, training, communications, etc.
The number of state health departments to be funded may be as high
as 10 once FY03 cooperative agreements are awarded. Six states were
funded thru FY02 cooperative agreements, and up to 4 more may be funded
in 2003. NCIPC hopes to eventually fund all 50 states. Violent deaths
include all homicides, suicides, legal interventions, deaths from
undetermined causes, and unintentional firearm deaths. There are 50,000
such deaths annually among U.S. residents, so the average state will
experience approximately 1,000 such deaths each year. The total number
of burden hours are 25,000, based on 10 states participating.
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No. of Average burden/
Respondents Number of responses/ response (in
respondents respondent hours)
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State Health Departments (10)--Completion of case abstraction... 1,000 1 2
State Health Departments (10)--Retrieving and refiling records.. 1,000 1 30/60
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Dated: September 12, 2003.
Nancy E. Cheal,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-23826 Filed 9-17-03; 8:45 am]
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