Supporting Statement A

Supporting Statement A

Customer Surveys Generic Clearance

for the

National Center for Health Statistics

Generic IC:

Children’s and Aging Forums Data User Surveys

OMB No. 0920-0729
(Expires May 31, 2017)

Contact Information

Traci Cook

Forum Coordinator/Staff Director

Office of Planning, Budget, and Legislation

National Center for Health Statistics

3311 Toledo Rd

Hyattsville MD 20782

301-458-4082

[email protected]

May 5, 2016

A. Justification

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

On 05/14/14, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) most recently received OMB approval for Customer Surveys Generic Clearance (OMB No. 0920-0729, EXPIRES 05/31/2017) to conduct voluntary surveys to assess strengths in agency products and services and to obtain feedback on the development, implementation, and satisfaction regarding public health services, products, communication campaigns and information.

Under this approval, OMB has agreed to expedite generic IC review of proposals for data collections and OMB will generally review such requests within ten business days.

The specific generic IC projects for this clearance are:

• The Children’s Forum Data User Survey

• The Aging Forum Data User Survey

2. Purpose and Use of Information Collection

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics (Children’s Forum) was established under Executive Order No. 13045 in 1997 and currently comprises 23 Federal agencies. The Children’s Forum periodically produces America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, a statistical data report intended to enhance data collections on America’s children and families.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-related Statistics (Aging Forum), established in 1986, currently comprises 16 Federal agencies. The Aging Forum periodically produces Older Americans: Key Indicators of Well-Being, a statistical data report intended to enhance data collections on America’s older populations.

The Forums reflect a unique model within the Federal system where agencies work collaboratively in the collection, production and publication of policy-relevant Federal statistics.

Insights gained from these two data user surveys will be used to more clearly define and better serve the needs of the Forums’ target audiences.

These surveys are in addition to the currently approved Children’s Forum and Aging Forum generic IC that captures conference attendees, while these newly proposed data user surveys query data users who visit the Forum’s respective web sites, childstats.gov (http://www.childstats.gov/) and agingstats.gov (http://www.agingstats.gov/agingstatsdotnet/main_site/default.aspx).

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

Prior to 2015, the Children’s Forum and the Aging Forum reached out to their participating Federal agencies, like NCHS, to ask them about their data users. While we gained some collective insights about the Federal partners and their data users, it will be useful to launch two separate customer surveys via Survey Monkey to more strategically define the Forums’ respective target audiences. The data user surveys will employ the newest information technology to collect and analyze data. They will be conducted electronically and accessed through the Forum web sites (see URLs above). Visitors to the Forum web sites will see a hyperlink and survey icon, inviting them to participate in the data user survey. Respondents will be taken to the Survey Monkey site (hosted by NCHS) and will submit their responses electronically; these responses will be tallied electronically and put into a database by survey software. Electronic collection will minimize the burden on survey respondents and facilitate the most rapid processing of survey results. This, in turn, provides the quickest means for making improvements based on customer feedback.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

In 2015, the Children’s and Aging Forums Feedback Survey GenIC (0920-0729) was initiated to capture feedback from conference attendees. The generic IC was helpful in identifying different types of data users (e.g., public health professors, post doc students), and offered general feedback on the users’ familiarity with the Forum reports and other products. However, the number of respondents was limited to those who visited the Forum’s exhibit table and were interested in completing the survey. This number of about 50 visitors to the Forum exhibit table over the 2 day conference resulted in less than half who were willing to complete the survey, and even fewer who were familiar with the Forum products and able to provide helpful insights. By conducing the data user surveys (Attachments A and B), a different instrument from the conference feedback survey, the Forum will be able to gain feedback from web users who are familiar with the Forum reports. Additionally, the web based surveys will be available to users for a 6 month period following a Forum publication release. This will allow time for ongoing collection and analysis of feedback.

Because we did not keep identifiers in the Children’s and Aging Forums Feedback Survey, there is the possibility that those conference attendees may also complete the web based data user survey. However, the information doesn’t warrant the collection of PII and there is no effort to link survey respondents, either retroactively or in the future. It is more helpful to the Forums to be able to identify the “types” of data customers who access their reports and other products, rather than identifying the individual respondents. Consequently, no PII has been collected and there are no future plans for collecting this level of information from the original generic IC.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

In as much as a few small businesses may be included in the audience for some surveys, they should not be adversely affected by the customer surveys. The number of questions will be held to the absolute minimum for the intended use of the data. Form design and electronic data collection methodology will further minimize respondent burden.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

These surveys are appropriate vehicles to examine public perception of both the Children’s and Aging Forums’ ability to respond in a timely manner to the needs of their respective customers. Collection of information routinely and systematically enhances their utility in monitoring customer satisfaction and in identifying problems and needs so as to make changes and improve products and services. The planned data user surveys are currently expected to be one-time data collection efforts, but future surveys may be proposed to capture feedback regarding other publication releases. Any subsequent data collection requests will be submitted to OMB for review. There are no legal obstacles to reduce the burden.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

The project is in full compliance with all the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside Agency

1. Federal Register Notice

The 60-day notice for the ICR was published in the Federal Register, Vol. 78, No. 227, October 25, 2013, pp. 7030270302. One public comment was received and the standard CDC response was sent.

b. Consultation

Only internal consultation was involved in this project.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

This collection of information does not involve any payment or gift to respondents.

10. Protection of the Privacy and Confidentiality of Information Provided by Respondents

It has been determined that the Privacy Act does not apply because information will not be collected in identifiable form.

11. Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Justification for Sensitive Questions

The NCHS IRB has determined that customer satisfaction surveys do not require their review and approval.

No sensitive questions will be collected.

12. Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs

The web based surveys via Survey Monkey will be online and active for 6 months following the release of the Children’s Forum publication, America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being (Annual release date, 2^nd Wednesday in July; next release, July 12, 2016) and the Aging Forum publication, Older Americans: Key Indicators or Well-Being (release date every four years; next release August 2, 2016). Every visitor to the respective Forum’ childstats.gov web site and the Agingstats.gov web site will get a pop-up prompt to voluntarily take the Data User online survey, found on the NCHS web site.

Table 1. Estimate of Annualized Burden Hours

Type of Respondent	Form Name	Number of Respondents	Number of responses/ respondent	Average Burden/ response (in hours)	Total Burden Hours
Children’s Forum web-users	Children's Forum Data User Web Survey	1,000	1	8/60	133
Aging Forum web-users	Aging Forum Data User Web Survey	1,000	1	8/60	133
Total					266

The mean hourly earnings across all occupations (as of May 2015) was $23.23 based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. The BLS website for this information is: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm. Consequently, the total estimated cost to respondents is $6179.18.

Table 2. Estimate of Annualized Burden Costs

Type of Respondent	Form Name	Total Burden Hours	Hourly Wage Rate	Total respondent Costs
Children’s Forum web-users	Children's Forum Data User Web Survey	133	23.23	$3089.59
Aging Forum web-users	Aging Forum Data User Web Survey	133	23.23	$3089.59
Total				$6179.18

13. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to the respondents. There are no costs other than their time to participate in the voluntary survey.

14. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

It is expected that collecting and analyzing the data from the surveys will cost NCHS about $1200 in staffing costs.

15. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

This is a GenIC. There are no program changes or adjustments.

16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule

Data collected will be analyzed to help inform the Children’s Forum and Aging Forum planning activities and future publications. The information is for internal use only. No publications of survey findings are planned. The respective Data User Surveys for the Children’s Forum and the Aging Forum will be launched within 6 months of clearance.

17. Reason(s) Display of the OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

The display of the OMB expiration date is not inappropriate.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

There are no exceptions to the certification.

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