Letter of Support - DSTDP

NSFG

0MB Attachment FB

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

0MB No. 0920-0314

Public Health Service

Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention

October 6, 2017
Anjani Chandra, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
National Survey of Family Growth
National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road
Hyattsville, MD 20782
Dear Dr. Chandra:
I am pleased to write in support of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and to highlight
some of the important ways in which these data have been recently used in the Division of STD
Prevention (DSTDP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). DSTDP has
analyzed and used NSFG data extensively over the past several years and plans to continue
doing so.
Using data from 2013-15 NSFG, DSTDP examined issues associated with confidentiality of health
status and STD testing among adolescents and young adults. These data helped the division to
identify barriers to one of the division's screening recommendations- chlamydia screening
among women 24 years old or younger.
Additionally, an investigation of the links between sexual violence, risky sexual behavior, STD
acquisition, testing, and treatment among women aged 15-44 in 2011-2013, revealed a number
of important findings related to reports of forced sex that can help inform guidance for clinical
providers regarding the identification of women in this at-risk group.
Risky sexual behavior and STls cluster within subpopulations. Examining the concentration of
behaviors can help to target interventions to those at highest risk. NSFG data has enabled us to
better understand the distribution of sex partners in the United States by sexual identity. Data
from 2006-2015 were used to analyze the number of opposite-sex and same-sex partners
among heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual males and females, with results suggesting that
interventions targeting high-risk persons within subpopulations may be more impactful.

NSFG

0MB Attachment FB

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

0MB No. 0920-0314

Public Health Service

Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention

Our NCHS colleagues have provided constant and timely interactions that were vital in reaching
deadlines and implementing our questions into the current cycle of data collection. In particular,
they maintain regular email and telephone contact to provide pilot-test and interviewer training
updates and to suggest potential changes to the questions as necessary. The quarterly email
updates of the progress of continuous interviewing are also a welcome piece of information that
we use to update our leaders on the project's success and to validate our DSTDP funding
decisions. We look forward to continuing this collaboration.

PXOk

Patricia Dittus, PhD
Behavioral Scientist
Division of STD Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention