Report to OMB Regarding the Use of CIPSEA
and the Designation of Agents
Office of Applied Studies (OAS), SAMHSA, DHHS

April 30, 2008

There are two surveys in OAS that use the agent-designation process: (a) the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and (b) Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). 

NSDUH:

OAS used the CIPSEA pledge and related agent-designation process for NSDUH in 2007. In 2007, the only agents that NSDUH has designated have been contract staff working on data collection and analysis. These agents work for two different contractors. Field staff work for Headway, a subcontractor for RTI who is the prime contractor.

The following is the total number of field and other staff that were designated as agents in 2007. All NSDUH contractor agents received training in 2007 and signed a written agreement.

No restricted-use NSDUH data was shared outside data users in 2007, and thus no agents were designated for this purpose.

DAWN:

The following is the total number of field and other staff that were designated as agents for DAWN in 2007. The CIPSEA pledge has been used for DAWN since 2003, and each staff member of the project has signed a written agreement. DAWN agents consist of contractors who worked on both analytic and survey components of DAWN and included staff from OAS contractors, Westat and RTI and their sub-contractors. In 2007, a total of 517 agents were designated under CIPSEA. Specifically, in 2007 there were 471 agents at Westat, the contractor for DAWN operations.  These agents were involved in data collection, processing, electronic dissemination, facility recruitment and management. In addition, in 2007 there were 46 agents at RTI who worked on the sample design, analysis of the data, and publications.

OAS Staff Training:

All OAS staff were trained and certified in 2007. 

Overall Status of Implementation:

NSDUH: Towards the end of 2007 we realized that there were a number of peripheral subcontractors on the NSDUH that potentially had access to data that were not publicly available, e.g., area segment kits used during the sampling process. The types of contractors with these kinds of data included printer staff and shredding staff. We are in the process of identifying which of the subcontractors actually have access to confidential data and thus will need to be designated as agents under CIPSEA.

DAWN: While the vast majority of the contractor staff was re-trained and recertified in 2007 a small proportion (less than 4 percent) of active contractor staff did not recertify in 2007. We are working on ensuring that all staff are trained and certified annually.

All CIPSEA reports from SAMHSA's Office of Applied Studies

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