Background: The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is a random population-based surveillance system of maternal behaviors and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Florida Department of Health initiated the PRAMS project for Florida in 1993 in response to research indicating the infant mortality rate was no longer declining as rapidly as it had been in this country. Data collected by the Florida PRAMS include information on maternal health and behaviors, prenatal and postpartum care, and infant health.
Purpose: PRAMS is designed to: 1) establish and maintain state-specific, population-based surveillance of selected maternal behaviors that occur during pregnancy and early infancy, and 2) generate state-specific data for planning and evaluating prenatal health programs. PRAMS data is used to supplement state data from vital records and to develop and assess programs and policies for women and children to help reduce infant morbidity and mortality by changing maternal behaviors during pregnancy and during the child?s early infancy.
Methodology: Data collection for PRAMS is the result of joint efforts between the CDC, Florida Department of Health (DOH) Office of Vital statistics, DOH Bureau of Epidemiology, and the county health departments (CHDs). Florida PRAMS began data collection in 1993 with the Phase 2 questionnaire. Every four years, the questionnaire is revised to address current and important issues for mothers and newborns, and a new Phase begins. Each year Florida samples approximately 2,800 new mothers that have given birth to a live-born infant. From the aggregate of all births known to Florida Vital Statistics, a sampling strategy has been designed to draw random samples from six strata based on mother?s age and race, and the infant?s birth weight:
Stratum 1 : White/ low birth weight/ age greater than or equal to 20 years old
Stratum 2: Black/ low birth weight/ age greater than or equal to 20 years old
Stratum 3: Low birth weight/ age less than 20 years old
Stratum 4: White/ normal birth weight/ age greater than or equal to 20 years old
Stratum 5: Black/ normal birth weight/ age greater than or equal to 20 years old
Stratum 6: Normal birth weight/ age less than 20 years old |
PRAMS is primarily a mail surveillance project with telephone follow-up of non-responders. Participants are surveyed by mailed questionnaire 2-5 months after giving birth, which is followed up by telephone interview one month later if no response is received from mailed survey. Florida PRAMS currently maintains an overall average response rate of 76 percent. |
