[Federal Register: November 3, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 212)]
[Notices]
[Page 66839-66840]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr03no05-57]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-06-0607]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects.
To request more information on the proposed projects or to obtain a
copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call 404-639-4766
and send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC Assistant Reports Clearance
Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D74, Atlanta, GA 30333 or send an email
to omb@cdc.gov.
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; and (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. Written comments should be received
within 60 days of this notice.
Proposed Project
The National Violent Death Reporting System-Revision-National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
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 do not 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 factors necessary for
prevention such as the victim-suspect relationship or the circumstances
of the deaths. This makes it impossible to discern anything but the
gross contours of the problem. Furthermore, death certificates are
typically not available until 20 months after the completion of a
calendar year. Official publications of national violent death rates,
e.g., those in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use
data that are more 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 much more common within all age groups than
homicides. The FBI's Supplemental Homicide Report System (SHRS) does
collect basic information about the victim-suspect relationship and
circumstances. But, as with death certificates, SHRS does not link
violent deaths that are part of one incident such as homicides-
suicides. Because it is a voluntary system, approximately 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 covers less of the country than SHRS, includes only
homicides, and collects only police information. Also, the Bureau of
Justice Statistics Reports do not use data that are more than two years
old.
CDC therefore proposes to continue a state-based surveillance
system for violent deaths that will provide more detailed and timely
information. It taps into the case records held by medical examiners/
coroners, police, and crime labs. Data are collected centrally by each
state in the system, stripped of identifiers, and then sent to the CDC.
Information is collected from these records about the characteristics
of the victims and suspects, the circumstances of the deaths, and the
weapons involved. States use standardized data elements and software
designed by CDC. Ultimately, this information is intended to guide
states in designing programs that reduce multiple forms of violence.
Neither victim families nor suspects are contacted to collect
information for The National Violent Death Reporting System. Data come
from existing records and are 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 the records, various data processing
tasks, various administrative tasks, etc.
The number of state health departments to be funded may be as high
as 22 by 2009. Seventeen states are currently funded. 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; thus the average state will experience
approximately 1,000 such deaths each year.
Estimate of Annualized Burden Table
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Number of Average burden/
Respondents Number of responses/ response (in Total burden
respondents respondent hours) (in hours)
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State Health Departments........................ 22 1,000 2.5
----------------- 55,000
Total....................................... .............. .............. .............. 55,000
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[[Page 66840]]
Dated: October 28, 2005.
Betsey Dunaway,
Acting Reports Clearance Officer, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 05-21914 Filed 11-2-05; 8:45 am]
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