Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) in Maryland Executive Summary October 2015 Diana Cheng, M.D. Principal Investigator Background The Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Vital Statistics Administration have worked jointly to implement the Maryland PRAMS project since 2000 through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). PRAMS surveys mothers 2-9 months after delivery about factors (such as smoking, drinking, partner violence, health care coverage, depression, stressors, assisted reproduction, infections, oral health, maternal employment, labor induction, and chronic disease history) before, during, and shortly after pregnancy that may have an impact on pregnancy outcome. The Maryland PRAMS survey booklet is sent monthly to a sample of new mothers along with an incentive (manicure file). The survey questionnaire, as well as other PRAMS materials including the introductory letter, question and answer information, Resource brochure and calendar, is available in both English and Spanish. Each mother is sent up to three surveys (until a survey is sent back completed) followed by a telephone interview if no written surveys have been returned. A $100 gift card is given out monthly to a mother chosen randomly who has completed the mail or phone survey. Maryland currently utilizes a stratified random sample based on one variable of infant birth weight. This over-selects mothers who have delivered a low birth weight infant (<2500 grams). New Features Maryland was one of 5 early adopter states to go live with the new PRAMS Integrated Data Collections System (PIDS) software and continues to provide feedback to the CDC on the functionality of newly released features. The Maryland PRAMS Program Coordinator was asked by the CDC to join a workgroup on PRAMS web methodology as well as the PRAMStat state workgroup with Northrup Grummand tasked with the redesign of the current analysis systems for PRAMS data. Maryland was also chosen as one of five early adopter states to implement the web based survey and will provide best practice feedback to the CDC to prepare the remaining states for web methodology. Data are analyzed annually and currently include reports from 2001 to 2013 birth years. Program briefs completed in 2015 include ?Focus on Cesarean Delivery? and ?Focus on Fertility Treatment Use?. Human Subjects Training occurs annually for all PRAMS staff and was last completed in June 2015. Number of Mothers Served Approximately 2,000 new mothers are surveyed annually. As of September 2015, 34,058 new mothers in Maryland have been mailed the PRAMS survey since its inception. Annual weighted response rates since 2001 births have been over 65%. Budget Maryland PRAMS is currently funded at $126,653 annually. We are now in the fifth year of a five year cycle. This application is for year 1 of a competitive grant application. Due date The application is due to the CDC on November 20, 2015.
The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System or PRAMS is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supported surveillance initiative that works with state health departments to collect state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. This population-based data provides a rich source of information, some not otherwise available, for maternal and child health programs and policy.
