10-Day Letter

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

February 27, 2015

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. 06/30/2015) plans to evaluate questions on school environment for the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG) with the participation of UNICEF.

We propose to start recruiting for volunteer participants as soon as we receive clearance and to start testing as soon as possible after that.

Background Information about Cognitive Testing of Questionnaires

The methodological design of this proposed study is consistent with the design of typical cognitive testing research. As you know, the purpose of cognitive testing is to obtain information about the processes people use to answer survey questions as well as to identify any potential problems in the questions. The analysis will be qualitative.

Proposed project: UNICEF/Washington Group School Environment Module Cognitive Interviewing Study

The questions on school environment were developed as part of UNICEF’s collaboration with the Washington Group on Disability Statistics (WG). The questions are intended for international use to better understand children’s disability and relationships to school attendance. This instrument will be tested in at least three other countries and language. The aim of this test is to see how the questions are interpreted in terms of activities covered and meaning of response categories. The school environment questions we are evaluating are included as Attachment 1.

The testing procedure conforms to the cognitive interviewing techniques that have been described in QDRL’s generic OMB clearance package (No. 0920-0222, exp. 06/30/2015).

We propose to recruit 25 adults (aged 18 and over) who meet the following criteria: 1) have children aged 5-17 living in the household who may have difficulty with seeing, hearing, walking, learning, behavior, depression or anxiety. In addition, we will also recruit some adults whose children are without these specified characteristics.

The newspaper advertisement/flyer used to recruit respondents is shown in Attachment 2. The 5 minute telephone screener used to determine eligibility of individuals responding to the newspaper advertisement/flyer is shown in Attachment 3. Within these constraints, we plan to recruit participants with some demographic variety (particularly in terms of gender, education, race/ethnicity, and income. Note that wording of the template has been approved and is contained within our umbrella package. Only project specific information has been added to the document. It is anticipated that as many as 48 individuals may need to be screened in order to recruit 25 participants.

Interviews averaging 60 minutes (including the completion of a Respondent Date Collection Sheet) will be conducted by QDRL staff members with English speaking respondents. All interviews conducted in the Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory will be video and audio recorded to allow researchers to review the behaviors and body language of the respondents. Interviews conducted offsite will only be audio recorded. These recordings will allow researchers to insure the quality of their interview notes.

After respondents have been briefed on the purpose of the study and the procedures that QDRL routinely takes to protect human subjects, respondents will be asked to read and sign an Informed Consent (Attachment 4). Only project specific information has been added to the document. Respondents will also be asked to fill in their demographic characteristics on the Respondent Data Collection Sheet. This document is contained in our umbrella package. The burden for completion of this form is captured in the interview.

The interviewer will then ask the respondent to confirm that he/she understands the information in the Informed Consent, and then state that we would like to record the interview. The recorder will be turned on once it is clear that the procedures are understood and agreed upon. The interviewer will then orient the respondent to the cognitive interview with the following introduction:

Lauren may have told you that we will be working on some questions that will eventually be added to national surveys. Before that happens, we like to test them out on a variety of different people. The questions we are testing today are about your child’s school and attitudes you may have about education. We are interested in your answers, but also in how you go about making them. I may also ask you questions about the questions—whether they make sense, what you think about when you hear certain words, and so on.

I will read each question to you, and I’d like you to answer as best you can. Please try to tell me what you are thinking as you figure out how to answer. Also, please tell me if:

there are words you don’t understand,

the question doesn’t make sense to you,

you could interpret it more than one way,

it seems out of order,

or if the answer you are looking for is not provided.

The more you can tell us, the more useful it will be to us as we try to develop better questions. Okay? Do you have any questions before we start? If yes, answer questions. If not, let’s get started.

After the interview, respondents will be given the thank-you letter (document contained in umbrella package) signed by Charles J. Rothwell, Director of NCHS, a copy of the informed consent, and $40.

After the interview, respondents will be asked to read the Special Consent for Expanded Use of Video and Audio Recordings (Attachment 5). There will be no coercion and the respondents will be told that they can call and reverse the decision at any time if they change their minds. If respondents do sign the special consent form they will be given a copy of that as well.

Extreme care will be taken with all recordings and paperwork from the interviews conducted off-site. Recordings and identifying paperwork will be stored in a secured travel case until returned to NCHS, at which point they will be transferred to the usual secured locked storage cabinets.

We propose paying participants $40, which is our standard payment. In total, for this project, the maximum respondent burden will be 29 hours. A burden table for this project is shown below:

Form Name	Number of Participants	Number of Responses/ Participant	Average hours per response	Response Burden (in hours)
Screener	48	1	5/60	4
Questionnaire	25	1	60/60	25

Attachments (5)

cc:

V. Buie

T. Richardson

DHHS RCO

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