Response memo_TUS-CPS

DATE: March 3, 2011

TO: Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Through: Mikia Currie, Program Analyst, OPERA, NIH

Vivian Horovitch-Kelley, OMB Project Clearance Liaison, OMAA, NCI

FROM: Anne M. Hartman, M.S., M.A., Health Statistician, RFMMB, ARP, DCCPS

National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health

SUBJECT: Pass backs for Change Request for "Next Series of Tobacco Use Supplements to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS)" OMB #:0925-0368, Exp. 3/31/2013

This memo highlights the pass back questions that OMB has in regards to the change request for the “Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS)."

The “TUS-CPS May 2011 Follow Up Q_AH finl2_OMB_PB_3-3-11_2-28-11_1-27-11..” document has: (1) red strike-outs for questions that were omitted from and (2) yellow highlights for questions that were either modified or added to the original 2010-2011 TUS-CPS submission in 2010.

The set of questions Jda-b1-4 asking in categorical form the number of times other non-tobacco products were used among ever users was added to streamline and reduce respondent burden for asking more detailed follow-up questions on quit attempts and cessation of these products. This information will also inform other surveys as well as the TUS-CPS series which include tobacco use of non-cigarette products how best to ask these questions. There is not a standard way to ask about other tobacco product use as there is for adult cigarette use where typically adult surveys ask if “100 cigarettes have ever been smoked.” The information on the distribution of the frequency of past use will help develop a reasonable threshold to use in asking more detailed questions in the future.

The set of questions in Section JJ,- New Tobacco Related Products of the May 2011 TUS-CPS questionnaire represent a substitution for the set of questions in the main 2010-2011 series. We made this substitution because we asked about dissolvable tobacco products which were supposed to be nationally available during this period but a change in their marketing has occurred. Meanwhile, the use and availability of electronic cigarettes has become an emergent issue. Thus we substituted questions on electronic cigarette use for those on dissolvables.

Finally, we modified question K7 (only about 5% of the population gets question K7) to ask those reporting a response of “none of the above” (about 10% of responses to this question) to further specify what these menthol cigarette smokers would most likely do if menthol cigarettes were no longer sold. This question represents critical information to the FDA and its Advisory Committee as the Committee prepares its recommendations to FDA about if menthol should be removed from cigarettes to protect the public health and as FDA ponders these recommendations together with further information from our study and other studies. We have already used the data from the May 2010 fielding to inform the FDA-TPSAC of the intentions of menthol smokers if menthol cigarettes were no longer sold. This modification will provide further information to this debate.

Let me know if you have any further questions. 

Anne M. Hartman

Biostatistician

Risk Factor Monitoring & Methods Branch

Applied Research Program

Division of Cancer Control & Population Sciences

National Cancer Institute

EPN 4005

6130 Executive Blvd MSC 7344

Bethesda, MD 20892-7344

Phone: 301-496-4970

FAX: 301-435-3710

E-Mail: ah42t@nih.gov

Web Page:  http://riskfactor.cancer.gov

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