On June 26, 2026, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new 30-day public comment period for its request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to reinstate the information collection for its Collaborating Center for Questionnaire Design and Evaluation Research (CCQDER). This action, published in the Federal Register, signifies a critical step in maintaining the federal government's capacity to gather reliable public health data. It underscores an ongoing commitment to ensuring the effectiveness and validity of the health surveys that inform crucial public health policy and research across the nation.
The Mission of CCQDER
The Collaborating Center for Questionnaire Design and Evaluation Research, operating under the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) within the CDC, was established with a singular focus: to evaluate survey questions for optimal design. Its broader mandate includes providing robust documentation that supports the validity of information collected by NCHS and other federal agencies. At its core, CCQDER aims to understand the interpretive processes respondents use to formulate answers to survey questions. This insight is then utilized to achieve several key objectives: ensuring question comparability across diverse respondent groups, identifying and correcting problematic questions that may be vague, ambiguous, or difficult to answer accurately, and providing clear data usage documentation regarding the specific constructs measured by individual questions.
Methodological Rigor and Scope
CCQDER employs a comprehensive mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to achieve its goals. These include cognitive interviewing, which delves into respondents' thought processes as they answer questions, focus groups to gauge collective perceptions, usability testing for web-based surveys, ethnographic studies for in-depth contextual understanding, and various survey field tests or pilot interviews conducted in person, by telephone, or online. The center's work spans critical CDC surveys such as the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the Research and Development Survey (RANDS), including RANDS COVID, as well as other federally sponsored surveys. The scope of its activities is extensive, encompassing applied questionnaire development and evaluation, alongside more fundamental research into measurement errors and survey response dynamics.
Legal Basis and Federal Mandate
CCQDER's operations are authorized by Section 306 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, specifically 42 U.S.C. 242k, as amended. This statutory provision empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through NCHS, to undertake and support research, demonstrations, and evaluations. The purpose of this mandate is to develop new or improved methods for obtaining current data, thereby supporting statistical and epidemiological activities crucial for enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of health services throughout the United States. Within this framework, CCQDER serves as the focal point within NCHS for all questionnaire and survey development, pre-testing, and evaluation activities.
Interagency Coordination and Unique Role
Notably, CCQDER at NCHS is currently the only government facility dedicated to testing and developing NCHS and other CDC questionnaires. While other federal agencies, such as the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, maintain similar facilities, their responsibilities are generally limited to testing questionnaires associated with their own respective agencies. This unique position means that CCQDER often faces demand for its services that exceeds available resources. To mitigate potential duplication of effort across federal agencies and foster collaboration, CCQDER hosts Q-Bank, a publicly accessible online searchable database containing all its evaluation reports. The center actively encourages other agencies to submit their evaluation reports to this database, facilitating knowledge sharing and efficient resource allocation across the federal landscape.
Public Comment Opportunity and Burden Estimates
This Federal Register notice serves as a second opportunity for public and affected agency comments. CDC previously published a similar notice on March 9, 2026, which yielded one comment expressing support for the program. The OMB is particularly interested in public feedback regarding several key aspects of the information collection: evaluating its necessity and practical utility for agency functions, assessing the accuracy of the estimated burden on respondents, enhancing the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected, minimizing the burden through technological or other means, and evaluating overall information collection costs. Comments for this proposed information collection project must be submitted within 30 days of the notice's publication date.
In terms of respondent burden, the CDC estimates that an average of 55,900 respondents participate in CCQDER activities annually. The total annual respondent burden is estimated to be 14,100 hours. While most questionnaire development interviews are anticipated to last approximately one hour, some may be as brief as fifteen minutes, and in rare cases, extend beyond one hour. Focus groups typically require 90 minutes, including instructions and ancillary paperwork. The CDC emphasizes that there is no direct financial cost to respondents beyond their time, and travel time to laboratory interviews is not covered due to variability in distances and transportation modes. For studies requiring record checking, the design will account for that time within the response estimate. The CDC is specifically requesting OMB approval for these estimated 14,100 annual burden hours for a period of three years.
