[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 12 (Friday, January 17, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3164-3167]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-00827]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food and Nutrition Service
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request--The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Education Study
AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment
on the proposed collection of data for the WIC Nutrition Education
Study. This is a NEW information collection. The Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is
administered at the Federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Through Federal grants to
States, WIC provides supplemental foods, health care referrals, and
nutrition education to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-
breastfeeding postpartum women and to infants and children who are
found to be at nutritional risk. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of
2010 (Pub. L. 111-296, Sec. 305) mandates programs under its
authorization, including WIC, to cooperate with USDA program research
and evaluation activities. WIC's mission is to safeguard the health of
low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at
nutritional risk by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets,
information on healthy eating, and referrals to health care.
Nutrition education is the program feature often viewed as pivotal
to WIC's success in achieving its mission to safeguard the health of
low-income women, infants, and children. By Federal directive, all
participants have the opportunity to participate in nutrition education
at least two times during a 6-month period of eligibility or quarterly
for a 12-month period. State and local WIC agencies have significant
flexibility to design nutrition education appropriate for the
demographics of their participants within established goals. This
flexibility has yielded a range of messages, delivery systems and
approaches, qualifications and training for educators, and quality.
The WIC Nutrition Education Study will provide a nationally
representative description of how nutrition education is currently
being provided to WIC recipients across the country. It will also
conduct a pilot study of the impact of nutrition education on WIC
recipients' nutrition and physical activity behaviors. This study will
provide FNS with a better understanding of nutrition education
practices and methods used by WIC and of the effectiveness of current
WIC nutrition education services. The study will document how nutrition
education is being provided subsequent to several program changes,
including the 2009 food package changes, the implementation of the
initiative to Revitalize Quality Nutrition Services (RQNS), and the use
of new technology, among a racially and ethnically diverse population.
Understanding optimal educational topics and methods, how to maximize
participant engagement, the best approaches for delivery and
reinforcement of messages, and how to effectively prepare and support
WIC nutrition educators is key to informing WIC nutrition education
improvements.
DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before March 18, 2014.
ADDRESSES: Written comments are invited on (a) whether the proposed
data collection of information is necessary for the proper performance
of the functions of the agency, including whether the information has
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions that were used; (c) ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of
information on those who are to respond, including the use of
appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological
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collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Written comments may be sent to: Rich Lucas, Acting Associate
Administrator, Office of Policy Support, U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room
1014, Alexandria, VA 22302. Comments may also be submitted via fax to
the attention of Rich Lucas at 703-305-2576 or via email to
[email protected]. Comments will also be accepted through the
Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow
the online instructions for submitting comments electronically.
All written comments will be open for public inspection at the
office of the Food and Nutrition Service during regular business hours
(8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday) at 3101 Park Center
Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, Virginia 22302.
All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the
request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments will
also be a matter of public record.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be directed to Rich Lucas at 703-305-2017.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: The Special Supplemental Nutrition
Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Education
Study.
OMB Number: 0584-NEW.
Expiration Date of Approval: Not yet determined.
Type of Request: New collection.
Abstract: The purpose of the WIC Nutrition Education Study is to
(1) provide a nationally representative description of how nutrition
education is currently being provided to recipients of the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
and (2) develop an evaluation plan for a national study to measure the
impact of WIC nutrition education on the nutrition and physical
activity behaviors of women and their children. This study will be
conducted in two phases.
In Phase I, data will be collected from WIC local agencies and
their local sites via a nationally representative survey and in-depth
telephone interviews with a subset of the survey respondents. The
objectives of Phase I include:
Describe the policies, practices, staff qualifications,
and other features affecting nutrition education across all sites
within a local agency.
Describe the logistics and features of nutrition education
service delivery, staff characteristics, modes of education, and
facilities and resources for delivering nutrition education at the site
level.
Describe the dosage and duration of various nutrition
education processes.
Assess the frequency of various nutrition education
processes overall and by geographic distribution and local agency and
site characteristics.
Inform the selection of the sites for the Phase II pilot
study.
The Phase II pilot study will include a process and impact
evaluation with six geographically dispersed local WIC sites. The
objectives of Phase II include:
Process evaluation: Describe the context for and
implementation of nutrition education in each of the six pilot sites.
Impact evaluation: Measure the strength of association
between exposure to WIC nutrition education and changes in participant
health behaviors and other outcomes (e.g., readiness for change, self-
efficacy, food acquisition and management, eating behaviors,
breastfeeding habits, dietary intake, and physical and sedentary
activity habits).
Data collection for the process evaluation will include semi-
structured interviews with WIC site staff, observations of nutrition
education delivery, an online survey of nutrition educators, review of
Local Agency Nutrition Education Plans and administrative data, and
focus groups with WIC participants. Data collection for the impact
evaluation will include a survey of WIC participants at three time
points (baseline, interim, final) over a 12-month period.
Combined, Phases I and II of this study will result in a
comprehensive description of WIC nutrition education processes that
will provide information on optimal educational topics and methods, how
to maximize participant engagement, and the best approaches for
delivery and reinforcement of nutrition education messages. FNS will
use this information to inform WIC nutrition education improvements,
thus improving the health of low-income women and children at
nutritional risk. There are no costs to respondents other than their
time.
Affected Public
Phase I
State and local WIC agencies and sites (50 State agencies,
1,000 WIC local agencies and 2,000 WIC sites): State agency directors,
local agency WIC directors/managers, local WIC site supervisors/
nutritionists. We estimate 50 State agencies and 50 local agencies will
need to be contacted and will provide information needed for drawing
the sample for the Site Survey. We estimate that 80% or 800 of the
local agencies and 80% or 1,600 of the WIC sites will participate in
the survey and that 80 of the sites (from the 1,600 responding sites)
will participate in the telephone interviews.
Phase II
State and local WIC sites (6 WIC sites selected from sites
responding to Phase I): Local WIC site supervisors, nutritionists/
nutrition assistants, WIC State agency staff. For the six pilot WIC
sites, all of the local WIC site supervisors will participate in the
baseline, interim, and final interviews and all of the State agencies
for these sites will provide the requested administrative data. We
estimate that 30 of the WIC nutritionists/nutrition assistants at these
sites will complete the Web-based survey of nutrition educators.
Individual/household (1,100 WIC participants): Respondent
groups include pregnant and postpartum women enrolled in the WIC
program and mothers or caregivers of children aged 1 year to age 4
years who are enrolled in the WIC program at the six selected WIC
sites. A subset of these respondents (96) will take part in focus group
discussions.
Estimated Number of Respondents
As presented in Table 1, the total number of respondents is 4,206.
For Phase I, FNS estimates that 50 State agency directors and 50 local
agency staff will provide information needed to draw the sample, 800
local agency WIC directors/program managers will complete the Local
Agency Survey (of these, we estimate 50 individuals may need to be
contacted to provide information to draw the sample), and 1,600 local
WIC site supervisors/nutritionists will complete the Site Survey. The
surveys are web-based with a paper version available for respondents
without Internet access. A subset of the local WIC site supervisors/
nutritionists (80) will complete in-depth telephone interviews.
For Phase II, 6 respondents are local WIC site supervisors who will
complete three in-person or telephone interviews (baseline, interim,
and final) during the 12-month study period (some of these individuals
may have also participated in the Phase I Site Survey). Additionally,
30 are WIC nutritionists/nutrition assistants who will complete a web-
based survey (some of these individuals may have also participated in
the Phase I Site Survey), and 24 are
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WIC State agency staff who will provide WIC administrative data.
A total of 1,100 respondents are WIC participants from the six
selected WIC sites. Of the 1,100 WIC participants approached for
screening, 900 will agree to be screened and will be eligible for the
study. Of these, 800 will agree to enroll in the study and complete the
baseline survey, 640 will complete the interim survey, and 600 will
complete the final survey. A subset of WIC participants (96) will take
part in focus group discussions.
Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent
For Phase I, there is one response per respondent. For Phase II,
the WIC participants will complete three surveys and the local WIC site
supervisors will complete three interviews (baseline, interim, and
final) during the 12-month study period. Data will be collected from
other respondent types only once.
Estimated Total Annual Responses
The total annualized estimated number of responses is 2,334. For
Phase I this includes 17 responses from State agency directors, 351
responses for local agency WIC directors/program managers, and 668
responses for local WIC site supervisors/nutritionists. A subsample of
33 local WIC site supervisors/nutritionists will be contacted for the
telephone interviews. For Phase II this includes 13 responses for WIC
nutritionists/nutrition assistants, 6 responses for local WIC site
supervisors, 4 responses from State Agency staff, and 1,242 responses
for WIC participants. The Annualized burden (last column of Table 1)
should be multiplied by 3 to get the burden over the life of the 3-year
data collection period.
Estimated Time per Response
Phase I: State agency and local agency directors will take 30
minutes (0.5 hours) to respond to the request for information to draw
the sample, local agency WIC directors/program managers will take 45
minutes (0.75 hours) to respond to the web-based Local Agency Survey,
and local WIC site supervisors/nutritionists will take 45 minutes (0.75
hours) to respond to the web-based Site Survey. Local WIC site
supervisors/nutritionists will take 30 minutes (0.5 hours) to respond
to the in-depth telephone interviews.
Phase II: WIC nutritionists/nutrition assistants will take 20
minutes (0.334 hours) to respond to the web-based survey. Local WIC
site supervisors will take 45 minutes (0.75 hours) to respond to the
baseline interview, 15 minutes (0.25 hours) to respond to the interim
interview, and 15 minutes (0.25 hours) to respond to the final
interview. WIC State agency staff will take 1.5 hours to respond to the
WIC administrative data request, which can be done once at the end of
the 12-month study period. WIC participants will take 15 minutes (0.25
hours) to complete the in-person screening interview, 20 minutes (0.334
hours) to complete the baseline survey, 20 minutes (0.334 hours) to
complete the interim survey, and 20 minutes (0.334 hours) to complete
the final survey. Additionally, it will take 90 minutes (1.5 hours) for
WIC participants who agree to take part in the focus group discussions.
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: FNS estimates the
annualized burden is 1,022.43 hours.
Table 1--Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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Frequency of
responses per Estimated
Estimated respondent Estimated average burden Estimated
Respondents by type of interview number of (annualized total annual hours per total annual
respondents based on 3 responses response hour burden\1\
years)
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Phase I--National Survey and Interviews of Local WIC Staff
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Request information for drawing sample from State agency directors
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Completed................... 50 0.334 16.70 0.5000 8.35
Attempted................... 0 0.000 0.00 0.0000 0.00
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Request information for drawing sample from local agency directors
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Completed \2\............... 50 0.334 16.70 0.5000 8.35
Attempted................... 0 0.000 0.00 0.0000 0.00
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Web-based survey of local agency WIC directors/program managers
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Completed................... 800 0.334 267.20 0.7500 200.40
Attempted................... 200 0.334 66.80 0.0835 5.58
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Web-based survey of local WIC site supervisors/nutritionists
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Completed................... 1,600 0.334 534.40 0.7500 400.80
Attempted................... 400 0.334 133.60 0.0835 11.16
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Telephone interviews with local WIC site supervisors/nutritionists \3\
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Completed................... 80 0.334 26.72 0.5000 13.36
Attempted................... 20 0.334 6.68 0.0835 0.56
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WIC Staff Total......... 3,050 .............. 1068.80 .............. 648.55
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Phase II--Pilot Evaluation Study (State/Local WIC Staff)
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Web-based survey of WIC nutritionists/nutrition assistants
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Completed \4\............... 30 0.334 10.02 0.3340 3.35
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Attempted................... 8 0.334 2.67 0.0835 0.22
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Baseline in-person interviews with local WIC site supervisors
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Completed \4\............... 6 0.334 2.00 0.7500 1.50
Attempted................... 0 0.000 0.00 0.0000 0.00
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Interim and final telephone interviews with local WIC site supervisors
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Completed \4\............... 6 0.667 4.00 0.2500 1.00
Attempted................... 0 0.000 0.00 0.0000 0.00
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Request WIC administrative data from State Agency staff ..............
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Completed................... 12 0.334 4.01 1.5000 6.01
Attempted................... 0 0.000 0.00 0.0000 0.00
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WIC Staff Total......... 56 .............. 22.71 .............. 12.09
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Phase II--Pilot Evaluation Study (WIC Participants)
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In-person screening interview of WIC participants
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Completed................... 900 0.334 300.60 0.2500 75.15
Attempted................... 200 0.334 66.80 0.0835 5.58
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Baseline survey of WIC participants (in-person/mail)
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Completed................... 800 0.334 267.20 0.3340 89.24
Attempted................... 100 0.334 33.40 0.0334 1.12
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Interim survey of WIC participants (mail/phone)
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Completed................... 640 0.334 213.76 0.3340 71.40
Attempted................... 160 0.334 53.44 0.0334 1.78
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Final survey of WIC participants (mail/phone)
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Completed................... 600 0.334 200.40 0.3340 66.93
Attempted................... 200 0.334 66.80 0.0334 2.23
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Focus groups with WIC participants \5\
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Completed................... 96 0.334 32.06 1.5000 48.10
Attempted................... 24 0.334 8.02 0.0334 0.27
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WIC Participant Total... 1,100 .............. 1242.48 .............. 361.80
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Annualized Total.... 4,206 0.5549 2333.99 0.4381 1022.43
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\1\ Annual hour burden will need to be multiplied by 3 for the total 3 year data collection period.
\2\ Not included in the Total for Estimated Number of Respondents because these respondents are a subset of
participants to the Local Agency Survey.
\3\ Not included in the Total for Estimated Number of Respondents because these respondents are a subset of
participants to the Site Survey.
\4\ Some of these individuals may have also participated in the Phase I Site Survey.
\5\ Not included in the Total for Estimated Number of Respondents because these participants are a subset of
respondents to the Participant Surveys.
Dated: January 9, 2014.
Audrey Rowe,
Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2014-00827 Filed 1-16-14; 8:45 am]
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