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PRAMS - Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System
What is PRAMS?
- PRAMS, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, is a surveillance project
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health departments. PRAMS collects state-specific,
population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences prior to, during and immediately following
pregnancy.
Why does PRAMS exist?
- PRAMS was initiated by CDC, in 1987, because infant mortality rates were no longer
declining as rapidly as they had in prior years. In addition, the incidence of low birth weight infants
had changed little in the previous 20 years. Research indicated that maternal behaviors during pregnancy
may influence infant birth weight and mortality rates. The goal of the PRAMS project is to improve the
health of mothers and infants by reducing adverse outcomes such as low birth weight, infant mortality,
and morbidity and maternal morbidity. PRAMS provides state-specific data for planning and assessing health
programs and for describing maternal experiences that may contribute to maternal and infant death.
Why is PRAMS important?
- PRAMS provides data for state health officials to use to improve the health of mothers
and infants.
- PRAMS allows CDC and the states to monitor changes in maternal and child health indicators
(e.g., unintended pregnancy, prenatal care, breast-feeding, smoking, drinking, infant health).
- PRAMS enhances information from birth certificates that was used to plan and review
state maternal and infant health programs.
- The PRAMS sample was chosen from all women who had a live birth recently, so findings
could be applied to the state’s entire population of women who had recently delivered a live-born
infant.
- PRAMS not only provides state-specific data but also allows comparisons among participating
states because the same data collection methods were used in all states.
How is the PRAMS data used?
- PRAMS provides data not available from other sources about pregnancy and the first
few months after birth. These data could be used in identify groups of women and infants at high risk
for health problems, to monitor changes in health status, and to measure progress towards goals in improving
the health of mothers and infants.
- PRAMS data is used by state and local governments to plan and review programs and
policies aimed at reducing health problems among mothers and babies.
- PRAMS data is used by state agencies to identify other agencies that have important
contributions to make in planning maternal and infant health programs and to develop partnerships with
those agencies.
Delaware PRAMS
- Delaware PRAMS project began in 2006.
- Delaware PRAMS developed a steering committee that met to learn about PRAMS, identified
perinatal issues for our state, and selected questions for the survey.
- Data collection started in August of 2007. Data analysis is expected to start in
late 2008.
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Last Updated:
Thursday May 01 2008
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