Letter to Dr. Schwab

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Center for Health Statistics

3311 Toledo Road

Hyattsville, Maryland 20782

October 6, 2011

Margo Schwab, Ph.D.

Office of Management and Budget

725 17th Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20503

Dear Dr. Schwab:

The staff of the NCHS Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory (QDRL) (OMB No. 0920-0222, exp. 03/31/2013) plans to conduct and oversee the observation and debriefing of 50 Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) field interviews for the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Two tests will be performed: 1) testing questions on sexual identity that bridge early work conducted by the QDRL with NHIS field interviews; and 2) testing ACASI development and usability in a field setting.

Proposed project: National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) ACASI 50 Field Test Observation and Evaluation

Field tests are a vital complement to cognitive interviews. Field tests allow testing of types of individuals who do not ordinarily volunteer for cognitive interviews in the laboratory. It also provides information collected under realistic field conditions and is conducted early enough to be useful for questionnaire design decisions.

As many as 50 field interviews will be conducted in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania by six Census Bureau Field Representatives (interviewers) who have experience conducting interviews for the NHIS. Census has pre-identified addresses for inclusion in this field test.

The NHIS is conducted using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). CAPI allows interviewers to read questions from the computer screen and enter the respondents’ responses directly into the computer during the interview. Due to the length of the NHIS we have not included it in this package. However, it can be accessed online at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm. Questions on sexual identity will be tested directly after CAPI administration using ACASI. ACASI allows respondents to listen to prerecorded questions from the laptop computer through headphones and record their responses using the laptop computer. Respondents may or may not simultaneously read the questions from the computer screen. The sexual identity question and other proposed ACASI questions appear as Attachment 1.

Census interviewers will be accompanied by an observer from NCHS, the Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory (QDRL), or a representative from the Census Bureau. All observers will have signed both the NCHS and the Census nondisclosure forms. Observers will use the CAPI & ACASI Field Test Observation Form (Attachment 2) developed by the QDRL in order to systematically record field observations. All observers will be trained by QDRL staff on the CAPI & ACASI Field Test Observation protocol prior to interviews.

Standard operating procedures regarding informed consent via the advance letter (Attachment 3) and survey administration procedures specific to the NHIS will be followed. Interviewers will hand the advance letter to the person who answers the door, give them a few minutes to read it and ask if they have any questions. If the person who will be the sample adult (CAPI respondent) is not the same person who was handed the advance letter at the door, then the interviewer provides the letter to the new person and goes through the same procedures.

Respondents will not be remunerated for participation. Interviews will not be taped.

In total, for this project, the maximum respondent burden will be 55 hours of interviewing. A burden table for this project is shown below:

Projects	Number of Participants	Number of Responses/ Participant	Average hours per response	Response burden
QDRL Interviews
2) NCHS Surveys	50	1	1.1	55

Attachment (3)

cc:

M. Moien

D. Holcomb

DHHS RCO

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