Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS)

What is PRAMS?

The Georgia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded research project conducted by the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) designed to collect information on mothers and babies. Georgia PRAMS began in January 1993 and supplements birth certificate data by providing information on women's attitudes, experiences, and behaviors before, during, and after the delivery of their live born infant.

The goal of Georgia PRAMS is to improve the health of mothers and babies in Georgia by reducing the risk of adverse birth outcomes such as low birthweight, preterm birth, and infant and maternal morbidity and mortality. Georgia PRAMS provides essential data to identify high risk groups, select maternal and child health priorities, establish prevention programs, and make policy changes that can improve the health of mothers and babies in Georgia.

How Does Georgia PRAMS Work?

Each month, a stratified random sample of approximately 100-200 mothers is chosen to participate from the Georgia birth certificate registry. PRAMS sites often oversample subpopulations to draw stronger conclusions about various factors of interest.

Since 2004, Georgia PRAMS has stratified and oversampled by:

Data Year	Strata
2004	Low Birthweight Normal Birthweight Black Non-Black
2005	Low Birthweight Normal Birthweight Black Non-Black
2006	Low Birthweight Normal Birthweight Black Non-Black
2007	Low Birthweight, Clayton County Low Birthweight, all other Georgia counties Normal Birthweight
2008	Low Birthweight, Chatham County Low Birthweight, all other Georgia counties Normal Birthweight
2009	Low Birthweight, Lowndes County Low Birthweight, all other Georgia counties Normal Birthweight
2010	All Birthweight, Burke & McDuffie Counties Low Birthweight*, all other Georgia counties Normal Birthweight, all other Georgia counties
2011	All Maternal Ages, All Birthweight, Burke & McDuffie Counties Teen Mothers⁺, All Birthweight, all other Georgia counties Adult Mothers, Low Birthweight*, all other Georgia counties Adult Mothers, Normal Birthweight, all other Georgia counties
2012	Teen Mothers⁺ Adult Mothers Low Birthweight* Normal Birthweight
2013	Counties identified as infant mortality clusters in 2012: Bibb County Chatham County Fulton County Lowndes County Muscogee County Richmond County All other Georgia counties
2014	Counties identified as infant mortality clusters in 2012: Bibb County Chatham County Fulton County Lowndes County Muscogee County Richmond County All other Georgia counties

Note. *"Low Birthweight" refers to infants who weighed less than 2,500 grams at birth, while "Normal Birthweight" refers to infants who weighed 2,500 grams or more at birth; ⁺"Teen Mothers" refers to mothers who were 19 years old or younger at the time their new baby was born, while "Adult Mothers" refers to mothers who were 20 years old or older at the time their new baby was born.

Mothers are sent a Georgia PRAMS questionnaire two to six months post-delivery that consists of about 80 questions, along with an introductory letter, a question and answer brochure about Georgia PRAMS, a calendar, a consent letter, and a resource brochure that includes telephone numbers for various Georgia programs.

The Georgia PRAMS questionnaire consists of two parts. First, there are core questions that are asked by all participating PRAMS states, including questions about the following:

Infant health care
Contraceptive use
Pregnancy-related morbidity
Content and source of prenatal care
Maternal alcohol and tobacco consumption
Physical abuse before and during pregnancy
Attitudes and feelings about the most recent pregnancy
Mother's knowledge of pregnancy-related health issues such as adverse effects of tobacco and alcohol, benefits of folic acid, and risks of HIV

The remaining questions on the survey are chosen from a pretested list of standard questions developed by CDC. Georgia PRAMS includes expanded questions on prenatal care visits, breastfeeding, HIV testing and influenza vaccination during pregnancy, postpartum depression, and infant safe sleep.

How are Georgia PRAMS data used?

Georgia PRAMS data are used to identify groups of mothers and babies with a high risk for health problems, to monitor changes in health status, and to measure progress toward goals to improve the health of mothers and babies. Georgia PRAMS aids in the planning and evaluation of programs and policies aimed toward reducing health problems among mothers and babies in Georgia. Additionally, Georgia PRAMS data are used by researchers to investigate emerging issues in the field of maternal and child health.

Georgia PRAMS Documents

Georgia PRAMS Questionnaires

Current Questionnaire
Phase 8 (2016 - Present)	Phase 8 - English	Phase 8 - Spanish
Previous Questionnaires
Phase 7 (2012 - 2015)	Phase 7 - English	Phase 7 - Spanish
Phase 6 (2009 - 2011)	Phase 6 - English	Phase 6 - Spanish
Phase 5 (2004 - 2008)	Phase 5 - English	Phase 5 - Spanish

Georgia PRAMS Data Summaries

Georgia PRAMS WIC Breastfeeding Data Summary - September 2017

Georgia PRAMS Newsletters

Georgia PRAMS Newsletter - August 2017

Georgia PRAMS Newsletter - January 2018

Georgia PRAMS Data Requests

How can PRAMS data be requested?

For assistance requesting Georgia PRAMS data, please contact the Georgia PRAMS Team at DPH-GeorgiaPRAMS@dph.ga.gov.

Page last updated 1/25/2018