New Health Surveillance Contract for ORC in USA

Opinion Research Corporation has been awarded a US$4.7 million contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA to implement National Youth Risk Behaviour Surveys (YRBS).

Under this contract, the company's ORC Macro Social Research Business will, among other things, collect data from national samples of students in the United States in grades 9 through 12 to evaluate health risk behaviours that contribute to the leading causes of mortality, morbidity and social problems within this group. The new contract runs until early 2006.

John F. Short, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Opinion Research Corporation, commented "This contract extends our relationship with the CDC on the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. To have been chosen by the CDC again for national YRBS reinforces the company's position as one of the Federal Government's leading research organizations in an area of increasing national importance: adolescent health. This comes on the heels of a US$7 million award just a month ago, to conduct the initial phases of a longitudinal study of adolescent health, Healthy Passages, also for CDC."

The company was awarded its first national YRBS contract in 1988 and has supported the national YRBS continuously ever since. The national YRBS is the centrepiece of the CDC's YRBS Surveillance System, which also includes state and local surveys.

For this contract, in addition to the biennial national YRBS, the company will implement two methodological studies to measure the effect of such controllable variables as administration in school vs. home, and paper-and-pencil vs. computer-assisted self administration, on the reported prevalence of youth risk behaviours.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.