From AEAStat -- addressing information market failure
The Census Bureau invites economists to submit comments to the Office of Management and Budget by April 6 regarding the proposed design of the 2020 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), conducted on behalf of the HHS Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
Public notice Feb 27
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/27/2020-04009/submission-for-omb-review-comment-request
The NSCH is designed to produce data on the physical, emotional, and behavioral health of children under 18 years of age in the United States. The NSCH collects information on factors related to the well-being of children, including access to and quality of health care, family interactions, parental health, school and after-school experiences, and neighborhood characteristics. The goal of the 2020 NSCH is to provide HRSA MCHB, their supplemental sponsoring agencies, states, and other data users with the necessary data to support the production of national estimates yearly and state-based estimates with pooled samples on the health and well-being of children, their families, and their communities as well as estimates of the prevalence and impact of children with special health care needs.
Proposed substantive and methodological differences between the 2019 NSCH and the 2020 NSCH include:
• Increased sample size - With additional sponsor funding and realized cost savings from streamlining the survey operations process, we are requesting an increase in sample size from 184,000 in 2019. The base NSCH sample plus the proposed state oversamples may reach up to 240,000 addresses for the 2020 NSCH.
• Revised questionnaire content – The NSCH questionnaires with newly proposed and revised content from the sponsors at HRSA MCHB underwent two rounds of cognitive testing. Proposed revisions can be seen at
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/DownloadDocument?objectID=99154200
• State oversample - In order to inform state-level decision making around various priorities, some stakeholders have shown interest in sponsoring an oversample of addresses within their state as part of the annual NSCH administration. Currently, four states (Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon, and Wisconsin) are moving forward with this option for the first time as part of the 2020 NSCH. Oversamples will provide states with more robust data for analysis and planning at the state level. The oversamples can be classified as either a general state-wide oversample or sub-state oversample. The state-wide oversample increases the total number of sampled addresses within a given state and will be distributed to the geographic areas similarly to the production base sample. State-level estimates of rare populations or outcomes could be evaluated from this larger sample, but sub-state (e.g., county-level) estimates could not. The sub-state oversample is aimed at producing smaller than state-level (e.g., county or county-level grouping) estimates in combination with the NSCH base sample to reach a specific sample size in each targeted group. The requirements to meet each sub-state oversample are primarily determined by county for the 2020 NSCH.
The sample file is selected from the Census Master Address File (MAF) and supplemented with an administrative records-based flag, which serves to identify households with children. The Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies (CES) division has further developed an indicator based on multiple sources of administrative data which was adopted to identify households with children to improve sampling efficiency in the NSCH.
State-level samples will be allocated to achieve an equal number of completed interviews in each state and the District of Columbia for the main production sample, while the four states that are pursuing an oversample will have additional requirements to meet the needs of their state. The sampling is designed for a base production sample size of approximately 217,000 addresses nationwide to yield roughly 700 completed interviews from households with children per state. The state oversamples for Colorado, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Oregon are designed for a sample of approximately 23,000 addresses and expect to yield approximately 960 completed interviews per state.
Eligible children within households that have a completed screener will be sampled for one of the three age-based topical surveys: 0 to 5-year-old children (T1), 6 to 11-year-old children (T2), or 12 to 17-year-old children (T3). Only one child per household will be selected for a topical questionnaire in an effort to minimize respondent burden.
The Census Bureau expects to provide public use datasets of the 2020 NSCH by the Summer 2021.
The Census submission to OMB on March 6 is available at
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202003-0607-001
In particular, for content revisions and supporting statements (purpose, plans, methods, schedule), see
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewIC?ref_nbr=202003-0607-001&icID=220525
Comments to OMB due by April 6, i.e. 30 days from Census submission (not FR notice.)
For AEA members wishing to provide comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806 AEA staff support is available at areamer@gwu.edu and 202-994-7866.
