Supporting Statement B

National Outbreak Reporting System:

An Evaluation of Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance and Technical Requirements for Reporting

OSTLTS Generic Information Collection Request

OMB No. 0920-0879

Supporting Statement – Section B

Submitted: 11/30/2012

Program Official/Project Officer

Maho Imanishi, VMD, MPH
Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer
Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1600 Clifton Road NE MS-A-38, Atlanta, GA30329
Office: (404) 718-4689
Fax: (404) 679-5073

Email: [email protected]

Section B – Data Collection Procedures

1. Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods

Table B-1: Potential Respondent Universe

The respondent universe is comprised of approximately 130 Reporting Site Administrator (RSA) who is responsible for entering foodborne disease outbreak data into National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) at state or local health departments in all states, the District of Columbia, and US territories who report foodborne disease outbreaks. RSAs are foodborne epidemiologists responsible for creating NORS users, reviewing and cleaning foodborne outbreak reports that local users have entered within their respective site. Some RSAs may also be responsible for entering outbreak reports. Each reporting site will have at least one RSA. When there are multiple RSAs in a state health department, it is often because they have jurisdiction over different parts of the state. To cover all the reporting jurisdictions, all RSAs will be surveyed. As collecting data from the entire population of respondents is feasible, a sampling strategy will not be employed.

Entity	Potential Respondent	N
State and county health department	Reporting site administrator (RSA) responsible for entering foodborne disease outbreak data into NORS: 123 RSAs at State, 2 RSAs at Local, and 5 RSAs at Territorial health departments	130
Total Universe of Potential Respondents		130

2. Procedures for the Collection of Information

A link to an SurveyMonkey ®, a web-based survey (See Attachment G - Survey Instrument-word version and Attachment H - Survey Instrument-Online version), will be sent to each RSA, along with an introductory email explaining the purpose of the survey and a written statement explaining that participation is voluntary (see Attachment I – Introductory Email). The study team will remind the RSAs about the survey at two weeks and four weeks via email (see Attachment J – Email Reminder 2 weeks and Attachment K – Email Reminder 4 weeks). Names and personal identifiers will not be recorded nor matched with surveys for analysis. Data will be downloaded from the internet-based survey site into database such as Excel or Access. The CDC evaluation team will provide technical support and address any questions that participants may have. Contact information will be provided in the survey.

3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates Deal with Nonresponse

The study team will remind the RSAs about the survey at two weeks and four weeks via email (see Attachment K – Email Reminder 2 weeks and Attachment K – Email Reminder 4 weeks).

The purpose of this survey is to obtain feedback on NORS system, and to identify possible reason(s) for an initial large drop and subsequent fluctuations in the number of foodborne disease outbreaks reported in 2009. Higher response rates will yield more reliable information; however, no scientific inferences will be made.

4. Test of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken

The survey questions were reviewed by ten individuals involved in NORS, as well as by Dr. Thomas Chapel (an expert evaluator), and revised based on the feedbacks. SurveyMonkey ®online instrument was tested by eight individuals for usability and formatting. Feedback from this group was used to refine questions as needed, ensure accurate programming and skip patterns, and establish the estimated time required to complete the survey. The average time to complete the survey including time for reviewing instructions, gathering needed information and completing the survey, was approximately 15 minutes. Based on these results, we chose to use 20 minutes as the estimated time range for actual respondents to complete the survey.

5. Individuals Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or Analyzing Data

The team of individuals working on this information collection, including instrument development, data collection, and data analysis will consist of members of the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch (EDEB) of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases.

Maho Imanishi, VMD, MPH
Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer
Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Email: [email protected]

Office: (404) 718-4689

Blackberry: (404) 819-9834
Fax: (404) 679-5073

Karunya Manikonda, MPH
Surveillance Epidemiologist, National Outbreak Reporting System Team
Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Email: [email protected]
Office: (404) 639-3530

L. Hannah Gould, PhD, MS

Lead, National Outbreak Reporting System Team

Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Email: [email protected]

Office: (404) 639-3315

The majority of data will be analyzed using basic descriptive analyses. Because the major purpose of this data collection is program improvement, this evaluation does not anticipate needing to use complex statistical techniques.

LIST OF ATTACHMENTS – Section B

Note: Attachments are included as separate files as instructed.

• Attachment G - Survey Instrument-word version

• Attachment H - Survey Instrument-Online version

• Attachment I - Introductory Email

• Attachment J - Email Reminder 2 weeks

• Attachment K- Email Reminder 4 weeks