Change Justification Memo to OMB - HIP Incentives[RG]

United States

Department of

Agriculture

Food and

Nutrition

Service

3101 Park

Center Drive

Alexandria, VA

22302-1500

TO: Julie Wise

OMB Desk Office

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH: Rachelle Ragland-Greene

Planning and Regulatory Affairs Branch

Food and Nutrition Service

and Ruth Brown, OCIO Desk Officer

FROM: Kelly Kinnison

Project Officer

Office of Research and Analysis

Food and Nutrition Service

DATE: January 12, 2012

SUBJECT: Justification for Change re: increased incentive for participants responding via cellular telephone to surveys approved under OMB# 0584-0561

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the US Department of Agriculture is

Seeking OMB’s approval to increase the incentive provided to participants in the Healthy Incentive Pilot (HIP) Evaluation. An additional $10 incentive would be provided to those participants who complete the telephone survey in Rounds 2 and 3 using a cellular phone. The purpose of this change is to improve the response rates achieved during baseline data collection and address the potential for nonresponse bias.

Baseline data collection (Round 1) for the HIP evaluation took place from August 22 through December 19, 2011. Although we surveyed almost 98 percent of the original target, the overall response rate is 62% (compared to an original estimate of 70%). In addition to some weather- and natural disaster-related setbacks, the response rate suffered from a high proportion of individuals we were unable to contact. Some of this noncontact may have been because of paricipants’ reluctance to use celluar phone minutes to complete the survey.

In addition to other efforts to maximize response and minimize nonresponse bias, as described in the original section B.1.3, pg. 36 of approved OMB package #AG-3198-K-10-0061: Part B, FNS would like to offer participants an additional $10 incentive if they use a cellular telephone to complete Round 2 or Round 3 of the survey. OMB previously approved a $30 incentive for participants who complete Round 2 and a $40 incentive for participants who complete Round 3. Both Round 2 and Round 3 involve a 24-Hour Dietary Intake Interview and other survey items.

This proposed change involves:

1. adding notification of the incentive to the advance letters (attachments 1-4 and 7-10), and

2. adding a question and explanation of the incentive to the survey instrument (attachments 5 and 6—the instrument for Round 2 and 3 is the same, changes appear on page 3 of the original instrument).

We do not believe the addition of this question and explanation will add to the estimated response times or overall average burden estimate.

Participants completing the surveys using the convenience of their cellular telephone may decrease the need for repeated calls to participants and the need to send field staff to visit unresponsive participants in person. The additional incentive may also increase the representation of cellular phone-only households. For Round 2, we estimate about 70% (n=1050) of completes will be from the phone center and about 50% (n=525) of those will use cellular phones, based on the contact information collected during Round 1.

This change was initiated by the contractor for this study and represents no additional cost to the Government. The proposed change has been approved by the contractor’s IRB.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER