2019 LUNG INJURY RESPONSE
UNDERSTANDING VAPING PRACTICES
IN THE UNITED STATES
Request for OMB approval of a New Emergency Information Collection
November 6, 2019
Contact:
Christopher Jones, PharmD, DrPH, MPH
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
4770 Buford Highway NE, S106-9
Atlanta, GA 30341-3724
Phone: (404) 498-0756
1. Respondent Universe and Sampling Methods 3
2. Procedures for the Collection of Information 4
3. Methods to Maximize Response Rates and Deal with No Response 4
4. Tests of Procedures or Methods to be Undertaken 4
5. Individuals Consulted on Statistical Aspects and Individuals Collecting and/or Analyzing Data 5
YouGov is a non-profit global public opinion and data company. It operates an online panel of over 6 million panelists representing 38 countries and conducts online-only surveys on politics, public opinion, brands and products, and other topics of interest. The sample for this data collection will be drawn from the U.S. YouGov panel that has 2 million registered panelists. Panelists broadly represent age groups, socioeconomic groups, and other demographic characteristics. Panelists are recruited through several mechanisms, including web search-based advertisements to join YouGov or to participate in a survey, partner sponsored solicitations, member referrals, organic recruitment, and telephone-to-web recruitment (random digit dialing sampling). Recruited panelists are verified through a double opt-in procedure, where they confirm their consent by responding to an email and YouGov checks to ensure the recruited panelist is actually new and that provided address information is valid.
Persons aged 16 years and older are eligible to become YouGov panelists and participate on YouGov panels. To become a panelist, individuals register with YouGov and complete a Panel Membership Profile following the registration process. Prospective panelists complete a YouGov registration form each time they wish to join a YouGov panel. YouGov panelists earn and accumulate points for taking surveys; these points can be redeemed later for rewards such as cash (via direct deposit to bank account) or gift cards for major retailers (e.g. Amazon, Target, Best Buy, etc.).
Panelists agree to comply with YouGov Terms and Conditions, including providing true, accurate, correct, and complete information about themselves during registration, while maintaining their member profile, and while participating in YouGov surveys. Upon successful registration, members are provided with a profile and an account for the YouGov panel. YouGov panelists are required to provide a unique email address; this ensures that they can take a particular survey only once. Multiple individuals (e.g. family members) cannot share a YouGov account. Members acknowledge that they can receive emails and notifications for possible survey participation. Violation of Terms and Conditions or account inactivity for 12 months or more can result in account suspension or termination. Further information is available at https://today.yougov.com/about/terms-combined/#/terms.
YouGov will solicit respondents for this data collection using the eligibility criteria described in Supporting Statement A. This solicitation occurs by sending an initial email inviting a panelist to participate in a survey, but does not include information about the exact nature of survey; the email includes a link which takes the panelist to the survey landing page. The respondent is then asked screening questions to determine eligibility. If eligible, the respondent receives an introduction to the survey, including a description of the topic, the length of the survey, information regarding their rights as respondents and a description of the incentive for completing the survey. The respondent then confirms consent to participate in the survey.
A sample of 4,500-6,000 adults aged 18 years and older fitting the eligibility criteria described in Supporting Statement A will be recruited. This sample size will provide information on a geographically diverse convenience sample of individuals that have vaped THC-containing products in the past 3 months but have not developed lung injury that can be compared to lung injury cases reported to CDC. Assuming a 5% prevalence of THC use among electronic vaping product users, we expect that 90,000-120,000 panelists may have to be contacted to achieve this sample size. YouGov will solicit respondents for the survey until 6,000 eligible respondents have taken the survey or 120,000 panelists have been vetted, whatever comes first.
The online panel is being used to maximize the number of respondents most similar to cases with EVALI and will consist of a diverse, robust convenience sample. Young adults aged 18-29 years will be oversampled since greater than 50% of EVALI cases have occurred in this age group.
The survey (Attachment 9), was developed to be consistent with the case report form used in the EVALI case investigation. CDC worked with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) to develop primary and out-of-hospital case definitions to be able to classify both confirmed and probable cases of EVALI consistently. Input was also received from other CDC subject matter experts, including physicians, tobacco experts, toxicologists, substance use experts, and others. Limited demographic information (i.e., sex, age, race/ethnicity, state) will be collected using standard YouGov questions collected as part of their ongoing panel maintenance.
Registered panelists who are invited to complete the survey (based on the sampling frame) will be able access the survey via the YouGov web site or through a YouGov-developed phone application. Survey access is available via Windows, iOS, and Android operating systems. Upon notification, participants will have 10 days to complete the survey.
Upon completion of the survey, YouGov will process and clean the data and transmit an analytic dataset to the CDC Vaping and Lung Injury Response Team. No personal identifiers will be included in this dataset. The vendor will destroy the raw data after final acceptance of the analytic dataset deliverable by CDC.
Response rate is enhanced by the size of the vendor’s established Internet panel. A 2000 point YouGov incentive (about $2 in value) for completed surveys (see Supporting Statement A, Section 9) also will be provided to encourage participation and response. The government normally does not provide incentives for survey participation, but due to the emergency nature of this investigation and use of YouGov, we are providing this small compensation.
Given the urgency of the EVALI investigation it is not possible to cognitively test or validate the instrument formally. However, the questions relevant to the EVALI investigation were developed consistent with the current EVALI case report form being used by states to collect information on cases and was vetted by CDC subject matter experts as part of the response.
Frequencies and percentages will be generated for the primary and secondary study questions listed in Attachment xx for panel participants (non-cases) and for identified cases from the states included in the Internet panel study. These estimates will be presented alongside each other. Demographic variables will be used to assess the composition of the panel sample relative to the selected cases. Given that the YouGov panel is a convenience sample, however, inferential statistics, including comparisons with the EVALI cases, are not possible.
Statistical analysis will be conducted by a team comprised of epidemiologists and statisticians operating out of the CDC Vaping and Lung Injury Response Team. Given the descriptive nature of the analysis, advanced statistical consultation is not needed.
Authorizing Legislation: Public Health Service Act
Survey: Understanding Vaping Practices in the United States
Background and rationale for EVALI survey questions
Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
EVALI survey invitation
EVALI consent form
EVALI IRB Docs - Determination
Lung Injury Response 2019 Assurance of Confidentiality (AoC)
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Samuel, Lee (CDC/OID/NCEZID) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-15 |