Justification Document for 0920-0572

CDC and ATSDR Health Message Testing System (OMB No. 0920-0572)

We would like to submit a request for change to the generic clearance, OMB No. 0920-0572, CDC and ATSDR Health Message Testing System.

This change would add eight screening questions to the Demographic Questions portion of the Health Message Testing System Question Bank. The change would not involve changes to the burden hours or any other part of the approved package.

The Technical Information and Communication Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention submitted a request to NCHM to use the Health Message Testing System for the study, “Formative Evaluation for the Development of an HIV Testing Campaign for African American Men Who Have Sex with Men (AAMSM) – Message, Concept and Channel Preference Testing.”

The approved Health Message Testing System Question Bank consists of 304 questions including 12 Demographic Questions; however, these screening questions do not completely address the specific audience segment required for the NCHHSTP data collection. Eight additional questions are required to identify members of the appropriate audience segment to participate in individual in-depth interviews.

Justification for the Additional Screening Questions

In 2008, CDC released new estimates of HIV incidence. These estimates were derived by using new methodologies designed to more directly measure the number of new HIV infections in the United States. As a result, the estimates show that in 2006, 56,300 people were infected with HIV which is higher than CDC’s previous estimates of 40,000 new cases of HIV annually. Also, according to these newly released data, by the end of 2006, over 1.1 million adults and adolescents in the United States were living with either diagnosed or undiagnosed HIV infection yielding a prevalence rate of 447.8 per 100,000 (CDC, 2008). Moreover, the majority of those individuals living with HIV were nonwhite (65.4%) of which nearly half (48.1%) were MSM (CDC, 2008). Due to the disproportionate and increasing rates among African American men who have sex with men, CDC has recognized this population as a priority population for developing HIV testing and prevention campaigns and interventions. Also, a thorough literature review and review of existing campaigns was conducted and results of this review indicated that there are a limited number of campaigns and materials currently in existence that appropriately address the increasing needs of this population.

Because of the need to address the increasing HIV prevalence rates among African American men who have sex with men and develop effective HIV testing messages and concepts that will encourage this audience to seek HIV testing, it is critical to test proposed HIV testing messages and concepts with African American men who have sex with men and are at high risk for HIV infection or transmission. Therefore, it is important that we are able to recruit African American men who: 1) are HIV negative; 2) self identify as gay; 3) primarily have sex with men; 4) may have had unprotected sex, and 5) may have had more than one sex partner. In order to ensure that we reach this specific audience, we are requesting to add the attached screening questions to the Health Message Testing System Question Bank.

Adding these questions to the Health Message Testing System Question Bank will ensure NCHHSTP programs will be able to maximize their use of the Health Message Testing System OMB clearance for future concept/message testing data collection instruments maximizing the health impact of the information directed at specific audience segments and resulting in optimum benefit for public health.

Requested Additional Questions

1. What is your current relationship status? Are you…?

• Single

• Married to a man

• Married to a woman

• In a relationship with a man

• In a relationship with a woman

• Divorced or Widowed

• Refused

2. Have you ever had an HIV test?

• Yes

• No

3. What was the result of your last HIV test?

• Positive

• Negative

• Don’t know

4. And when was the last time you had an HIV test? [RECORD DATE]

__________________________

5. Now I am going to ask you to describe your sexual identity. Would you describe yourself as:

   1. Homosexual or “gay” or same gender loving

   2. Bisexual or two spirited

   3. Other, specify____________________________________

   4. Heterosexual or “straight”

   5. Don’t know

   6. Decline to answer

6. Within the past 6 months, who have you primarily had sex with?

• A male

• A female

• Haven’t had sex in the last 6 months

• Refused

7. Within the past 6 months, have you had unprotected sex? By “unprotected sex” we mean having sex without a condom.

• Yes

• No

• Refused

8. Within the past 6 months, have you had sex with more than 1 partner?

• Yes

• No