[Federal Register: March 31, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 61)]
[Notices]               
[Page 15367-15368]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr31mr99-74]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health

 
Proposed Data Collection Available for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
requires that Federal agencies provide a 60-day notice in the Federal 
Register concerning each proposed collection of information. The 
National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) of the 
National Institutes of Health is publishing this notice to solicit 
public comment on a proposed revised data collection: The Impact and 
Costs of Sealants in Young Child Populations.
    Comments are invited on: (a) The need for the information, (b) its 
practical utility, (c) the accuracy of the agency's burden estimate, 
and (d) ways to minimize burden on respondents. Send comments to Dr. 
Robert Selwitz, Office of Science Policy and Analysis, NIDCR, NIH, 
Natcher Building, Room 3AN-44J, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 
20892. Written comments must be received by June 1, 1999. To request a 
copy of the data collection plan and instrument, call Dr. Selwitaz on 
(301) 594-3977 (not a toll-free number).

Prposed Project

    The Impact and Costs of Sealants in Young Child Populations--
Revision--This study will assess the value (costs and effects) of 
providing dental sealants to the child populations with erupted 
permanent posterior teeth (approximaelty ages 6-12) under alternative 
financial support programs in existing oral health care delivery 
systems and across two socioeconomic groups. The primary objectives of 
the study are to determine if various levels of dental insurance 
influence the use of dental sealants, if costs affributable to sealants 
in a payment program provide value in teams of reduced caries, and if 
providing dental sealants to specific tooth surfaces of children merits 
the investment of limited resources within a larger oral health care 
program. The findings will provide valuable information concerning: 1. 
Real disease reductions possible using dental sealants for age-
appropriate child populations within the existing oral health delivery 
system, 2. the costs of, and estimated savings from, providing sealants 
rather than restorative care, and 3. the marginal benefits and cost 
benefits of adding sealants to ``normative'' caries prevention efforts 
in age-appropriate child populations.
    The number of required respondents has been reduced significantly 
due to the proposed modification of the approach to meeting the 
objectives of the study. Data gathered from approximately 400 children 
enrolled to date under the study's insurance coverage will be 
supplemented by administrative data already collected from large 
numbers of children who are receiving dental care through private

[[Page 15368]]

insurance, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and Medicaid. No 
contact with these children is required, and there will be no 
identifying information in the data obtained. The result of the 
proposed modification is that the respondent burden for the component 
of this study that involves direct contact with subjects is reduced to 
a small proportion of the original estimate. The burden estimates are 
as follows:

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                                                                 No. of       No. of responses     Avg/burden/
                                                               respondents     per respondent   response (hours)
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Parents...................................................               500                 4              .125
Children..................................................               400                 4              .129
Dentists..................................................               300                 1              .033
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    Dated: March 18, 1999.
Yvonne H. du Buy,
Executive Officer, NIDCR.
[FR Doc. 99-7816 Filed 3-30-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-M