Yellowstone Study Consent

APPENDIX O – Yellowstone Study Consent – Paper Version

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

BACKCOUNTRY SURVEY

Welcome! The National Park Service (NPS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are doing a study to look at the health of park visitors who travel in the backcountry. By BACKCOUNTRY we mean those wilderness areas of the park that (1) require a permit to enter, (2) are reached primarily by hiking, boating, or horseback, and (3) lack most facilities and services.

We are asking Yellowstone National Park visitors who traveled into the backcountry between May 1, 2008 and October 31, 2008 to answer questions about their experiences in the park. The Internet-based questionnaire will collect information about (1) water use, (2) food, (3) hygiene, (4) recreational water activities (such as boating and swimming), (4) animal contact, (5) your health, and (6) some personal information (such as age, relevant medical history, and previous backcountry experience).

This information is being collected under the authority of Section 301 of the Public Health Service Act.

You will not receive any direct benefit from this study. There is no penalty for not being part of the study. There is also no risk or cost to you if you do agree to be part of the study. Your participation is voluntary. You may stop at any time. You can refuse to answer any question at any time.

This study will help the NPS and CDC improve guidelines about backcountry health, and will help protect future park users from illness and injury. This study is not meant to check whether you followed NPS Backcountry Use Regulations. CDC and NPS plan to maintain your survey information in a confidential manner, and do not plan to share your information with anyone except authorized members of the study team. The report sent to the National Park Service will be a summary of all the answers from the thousands of people visiting the backcountry. It will not contain your name. NPS will not be able to link your name to your answers. We do not plan to publish any identifiable information when we publish the results of this study. All your answers will be kept private to the extent allowed by law. Your questionnaire will be stored in a secure facility. Your answers will be entered into a CDC password-protected computer server. Your contact information will be deleted from our files when the study is finished. After you finish the questionnaire, you will not be contacted again.

This questionnaire should take about 50 minutes to complete. Please return the completed questionnaire in the envelope provided.

When the study is finished a final report will be available through the National Park Service. Further information about the study and about travel-related illness and injury is available on the following websites:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Backcountry Survey

https://www2a.ncid.cdc.gov/backcountry/backcontry.htm

National Park Service

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Backcountry Survey

http://www.nps.gov/public_health/inter/backcountry/yell_bc_survey.htm

If you have any questions about this study or your rights as a participant please call:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Study questions: Please call Dr. Sharon Roy at 770-488-4412

Your rights as a participant: Please call CDC’s Human Research Protection Office at 1-800-584-8814 and leave a message including your name and phone number. Say you are calling about the Division of Parasitic Diseases’ web-based survey of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Backcountry Users (exempt protocol # 4583). Someone will call you back as soon as possible.

National Park Service

Study questions: Please call Lieutenant Commander David Wong at 202-513-7160 or Captain Charles Higgins at 202-513-7217

Do you agree to take this survey?

YES  NO 

Public reporting burden of this collection of information is estimated to average 50 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to CDC/ATSDR Reports Clearance Officer; 1600 Clifton Road NE, MS D-74, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; ATTN: PRA (0920-0727).

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