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OREGON PRAMS: An Overview
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT PRAMS
What is Oregon PRAMS?
Oregon PRAMS, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, is a project of the Office of Family Health with support from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). PRAMS collects data on maternal attitudes and experiences prior to, during, and immediately after pregnancy for a sample of Oregon women. The sample data are analyzed in a way that allows findings to be applied to all Oregon women who have recently had a baby.
Oregon PRAMS began in November 1998 with partial CDC funding beginning in 2001. For more information on the national PRAMS program please visit PRAMS at CDC
Why does PRAMS exist?
More than 40,000 babies are born in Oregon each year. Most of these babies are healthy, but thousands have serious health problems and hundreds die. How can we plan for healthier babies -- and healthier families? First, we need to understand what makes them healthy -- and why some are not as healthy as they could be.
The data that PRAMS collects may improve the health of mothers and infants, especially as it is used for planning and assessing health programs and for describing maternal experiences that may contribute to maternal and infant health.
How can PRAMS data be used?
PRAMS provides data not available from other sources about pregnancy and the first few months after birth. These data can be used to 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 are used by state and local governments to plan and review programs and policies aimed at reducing health problems among mothers and babies.
PRAMS data are 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.
PRAMS Questionnaire
The PRAMS questionnaire includes questions about the following:
- Attitudes and feelings about the most recent pregnancy
- Content and source of prenatal care
- Insurance for prenatal care
- Maternal alcohol and tobacco consumption
- Breastfeeding
- Infant sleep position
- Infant health care
- Child safety
- Family planning
- Pregnancy intendedness
- Maternal use of multivitamins containing folic acid
For more information, contact:
Dr. Ken Rosenberg
PRAMS Project Director
971-673-0237
E-mail: ken.d.rosenberg@state.or.us.
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