VA PRAMS, the Virginia Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, is a surveillance project of the Virginia Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). VA PRAMS will collect Virginia-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy. Click here for the CDC PRAMS webpage (www.cdc.gov/PRAMS).
VA PRAMS will provide data for state health officials to use to improve the health of Virginia’s mothers and infants.
VA PRAMS will allow CDC and Virginia to monitor changes in maternal and child health indicators (e.g., unintended pregnancy, prenatal care, breast-feeding, smoking, drinking, infant health).
VA PRAMS will enhance information from birth certificates used to plan and review Virginia’s maternal and infant health programs.
The VA PRAMS sample is chosen from all Virginia women who had a live birth recently, so findings can be applied to the state's entire population of women who have recently delivered a live-born infant.
VA PRAMS not only provides state-specific data but also allows comparisons among participating states because the same data collection methods are used in all states.
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 researchers to investigate emerging issues in the field of maternal and child health.
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.
VA PRAMS collaborates with a variety of public and private partners in Virginia, all of whom are committed to improving the health of mothers and babies across the Commonwealth. Our partners include:
VA PRAMS will collect data in two ways —a mail survey and a telephone survey. Each year, about 800 mothers will be randomly chosen from Virginia birth certificates to participate in VA PRAMS. For more detailed information on PRAMS methodology, click here to visit the CDCs’ PRAMS methodology website. http://www.cdc.gov/PRAMS/methodology.htm
The data collection activities for VA PRAMS are conducted by one of our VA PRAMS partners – the Survey Evaluation and Research Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU SERL). For more information on VCU SERL, click here to visit their website. http://www3.vcu.edu/srl/
The VA PRAMS questionnaire has two parts. There are core questions that are asked by all states. The core portion of the questionnaire includes questions about the following:
The remaining questions on the questionnaire were chosen from a list of standard questions developed by the CDC or by other states on their own. This portion of the questionnaire includes questions abut the following:
The following criteria were used to choose the state-added standard questions to supplement the core PRAMS questions.
Virginia Pregnancy Risk Assesment and Monitoring System
Virginia Health Department
Office of Family Health Services
109 Governor St. 7th Floor | Richmond, VA 23219
1.877.89.PRAMS
