Aug 20 -- The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invites public comment on the proposed Research and Development Survey (RANDS). RANDS will leverage commercially-created and maintained survey panels to supplement and expand NCHS' methodological research, allowing NCHS to quickly obtain and disseminate information about the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and provide documentation supporting the validity of outbreak-related survey questions.
RANDS encompasses two information collections: a two-round methodological survey (RANDS-COVID-19), using NORC's AmeriSpeak Panel and TrueNorth supplemental panel, and a set of cognitive interviews to validate the items on the RANDS-COVID-19 questionnaire.
While NCHS would prefer to conduct iterative rounds of cognitive interviews prior to the fielding of the RANDS-COVID-19 questionnaire, given both the limitations of the current testing environment due to social distancing and the public health need for the RANDS-COVID-19 data itself, NCHS will be unable to follow its typical workflow. Instead, the cognitive interviewing project proposed here will function as a validity study so that NCHS staff and other subject matter experts can understand the constructs of the questions as they analyze, interpret, and disseminate the RANDS-COVID-19 data.
The purpose of both activities will include a research component, and will also contribute to CDC's ongoing surveillance of the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire will cover areas such as general health, psychological distress, chronic conditions, health behaviors, testing and treatment for COVID-19, the outbreak's effects on healthcare access, and how individuals are modifying their behaviors due to the epidemic.
FR notice:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/20/2020-18279/proposed-data-collection-submitted-for-public-comment-and-recommendations
Draft RANDS questionnaire and related documents:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pi77yijoglhb8oo/AACKRKimcpSp5N8lHLBy9JZUa?dl=0
Point of contact: Paul J Scanlon Jr, PhD., Senior Behavioral Scientist, Division of Research and Methodology, National Center for Health Statistics/CDC 301-458-4649 pscanlon@cdc.gov
