PREGNANCY RISK ASSESSMENT MONITORING SYSTEM COMPONENT A: CORE SURVEILLANCE

PUERTO RICO PREGNANCY RISK ASSESSMENT MONITORING SYSTEM (PR-PRAMS): COMPONENT A CORE SURVEILLANCE The major goal of PR-PRAMS is to collect data representative of PR’s population on health status, maternal attitudes, behaviors and experiences that occur prior to, during, and after pregnancy, in order to reduce maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. This will allow for informed decision

making, resource allocation, policies, and systems changes that support effective programming of services for women and infants, resulting in public health impact and improvements in population health. The study objectives are: 1) To implement population-based surveillance in PR on selected maternal behaviors and experiences that occur prior to, during, and shortly after

pregnancy among women with a recent live birth, including emerging issues and post-disaster surveillance needs, as they arise; 2) To ensure data is of high scientific quality and comparable to other jurisdictions by following the methodology documented in the CDC PRAMS protocol; 3) To conduct comprehensive analysis of PR-PRAMS data based on an analysis plan designed to

inform programmatic activities, research and implement public health practices in PR; 4) To translate and disseminate research analytic results into practical and useful information for public health action in PR that can guide program development and evaluation, in collaboration with the PR-PRAMS Steering Committee (SC). PR-PRAMS will follow a standardized data collection

methodology that allows for comparisons with other states and for optimal use of the data for single-state analysis. The survey will include core, standard and state developed questions, according to gaps in data identified for PR. PR-PRAMS methodology combines two modes of data collection: a mailed questionnaire and telephone interviews with follow-up attempts. Each

month, a stratified sample is drawn from the Vital Statistics (VS) data file and the sequence of contacts is attempted. A questionnaire will be mailed 2 to 4 months to sample selected women who have recently delivered live born infants. The data collection cycle takes 60 to 95 days. PR-PRAMS has been implemented since 2016. During the first four (4) years of implementation

of the cooperative agreement, PR-PRAMS has met all its goals and objectives. Staff is already in place to continue operations. The project’s infrastructure is operating efficiently, reaching a 63% response rate in 2017, 80% in 2018 and 81% in 2019. A SC is organized to continue providing input on questions selection, development of State Analysis Plan (SAP) and translation

and dissemination of data. PR-PRAMS data is being used to monitor PR national performance objectives for Title V block, and has served to benchmark select performance measures to demonstrate the impacts of Title V on health outcomes. The data collected is also used to support emerging issues and other priorities in Maternal and Child Health (MCH), and to evaluate and

sustain public health efforts, develop plans, and training. Data is being disseminated through different forums to a variety of stakeholders to raise awareness on maternal and child health issues. The expected outcomes of the survey are: 1) Produce timely, high quality data representative of the jurisdiction’s population to monitor risk factors for maternal and infant health;

2) Analyze and disseminate PRAMS data on a variety of MCH topics to inform public health programs, research and system changes, and health care system changes; 3) Document efforts to translate data into useable information for public health action; 4) Make PRAMS data available to stakeholders including public health agencies, clinical providers, health systems, and

researchers for studies to inform knowledge gaps in maternal and infant health.