[Federal Register: March 24, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 56)]
[Notices]
[Page 14242-14243]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr24mr03-69]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[60Day-03-53]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 for opportunity for public comment on
proposed data collection projects, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) will publish periodic summaries of proposed projects.
To request more information on the proposed projects or to obtain a
copy of the data collection plans and instruments, call the CDC Reports
Clearance Officer on (404) 498-1210.
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents,
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other
forms of information technology. Send comments to Seleda Perryman, CDC
Assistant Reports Clearance Officer, 1600 Clifton Road, MS-D24,
Atlanta, GA 30333. Written comments should be received within 60 days
of this notice.
Proposed Project: The National Violent Death Reporting System--
New--National Center for Injury prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Violence is an important public health problem. In the United
States, homicide and suicide are the second
[[Page 14243]]
and third leading causes of death, respectively, in the 1-34 year old
age group. Unfortunately, public health agencies don't know much more
about the problem than the numbers and the sex, race, and age of the
victims, all information obtainable from the standard death
certificate. Death certificates, however, carry no information about
key facts necessary for prevention such as the relationship of the
victim and suspect and the circumstances of the deaths, thereby making
it impossible to discern anything but the gross contours of the
problem. Furthermore, death certificates are typically available 20
months after the completion of a single calendar year. Official
publications of national violent death rates, e.g. those in Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use data that is less than two
years old. Public health interventions aimed at a moving target last
seen two years ago may well miss the mark.
Local and Federal criminal justice agencies such as the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more information about
homicides, but they do not routinely collect standardized data about
suicides, which are in fact much more common than homicides. The FBI's
Supplemental Homicide Report system (SHRs) does collect basic
information about the victim-suspect relationship and circumstances,
like death certificates, it does not link violent deaths that are part
of one incident such as homicide-suicides. It also is a voluntary
system in which some 10-20 percent of police departments nationwide do
not participate. The FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System
(NIBRS) addresses some of these deficiencies, but it covers less of the
country than SHRs, still includes only homicides, and collects only
police information. Also, the Bureau of Justice Statistics Reports do
not use data that is less than two years old.
CDC therefore proposes to start a state-based surveillance systems
for violent deaths that will provide more detailed and timely
information. It will tap into the case records held by medical
examiners/coroners, police, and crime labs. Data will be collected
centrally by each state in the system, stripped of identifiers, and
then sent to the CDC. Information will be collected from these records
about the characteristics of the victims and suspects, the
circumstances of the deaths, and the weapons involved. States will use
standardized data elements and software designed by CDC. Ultimately,
this information will guide states in designing programs that reduce
multiple forms of violence.
Neither victim families nor suspects are contacted to collect this
information. It all comes from existing records and is collected by
state health department staff or their subcontractors. Health
departments incur an average of 2.5 hours per death in identifying the
deaths from death certificates, contacting the police and medical
examiners to get copies of or to view the relevant records, abstracting
all the records, various data processing tasks, various administrative
tasks, data utilization, training, communications, etc.
The number of state health departments to be funded may be as high
as 14 once FY03 cooperative agreements are awarded. Six states were
funded thru FY02 cooperative agreements, and up to 8 more may be funded
in 2003. NCIPC hopes to eventually fund all 50 states. Violent deaths
include all homicides, suicides, legal interventions, deaths from
undetermined causes, and unintentional firearm deaths. There are 50,000
such deaths annually among U.S. residents, so the average state will
experience approximately 1,000 such deaths each year.
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Number of Average burden/
Respondents Number of responses/ response (in Total burden
respondents respondent hours) (in hours)
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State Health Departments........................ 14 1,000 150/60 35,000
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Total....................................... .............. .............. .............. 35,000
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Dated: March 13, 2003.
Thomas Bartenfeld,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-6871 Filed 3-21-03; 8:45 am]
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