Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) Data

This Population Health Information Tool (PHIT) dataset contains maternal and child health survey data from a sample of mothers from Massachusetts with a recent live birth.

About the Data

Overall estimates as well as estimates by maternal race/Hispanic ethnicity, age group, educational attainment, household poverty level, nativity, and marital status are available. The data were weighted using selected maternal demographics to account for non-response and adjusted for sampling probabilities and coverage to represent the Massachusetts birth population in a given year. Mothers were surveyed 2-6 months after giving birth on their maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and shortly after pregnancy.

Use this link to explore PRAMS data 

About PRAMS Data

PRAMS 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 to investigate emerging issues in the field of reproductive health and to plan and review programs and policies aimed at reducing health problems among mothers and infants.

Massachusetts PRAMS oversamples by race and Hispanic ethnicity to ensure adequate representation of racial and ethnic minority mothers. PRAMS data are linked to selected birth certificate demographic variables and provide state-level estimates of maternal and child health indicators.

Throughout the report, a sample size less than 5 is not shown due to privacy and appears as Insufficient Data to Report.

PRAMS data are generalizable only to pregnancies resulting in a live birth of singletons or multiples of fewer than four, to Massachusetts residents who gave birth in the state. 

The PRAMS survey is currently only administered in English and Spanish. This might present a limitation in collecting data from mothers who speak neither survey language. Since PRAMS is based on self-reported information, there is the potential for misclassification error. Bias may occur if some groups of mothers recall experiences more or less accurately than others.

Continue Exploring PHIT Data

Massachusetts Linked Birth/Infant Deaths Data  Select Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program data  Pediatric Asthma Data 

Additional Resources

Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) Webpage 

As a publicly available tool, we highly encourage the use of data included in PHIT. Below is an example of how you can cite this webpage to reference any information you find helpful.

[Insert Title of Webpage Here] (n.d.). Population Health Information Tool, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. [Insert URL]