# Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a surveillance system of maternal attitudes, experiences and behaviors that occur around the time of pregnancy to inform local programs and policy.

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · NEW YORK CITY HEALTH/MENTAL HYGIENE · 2020 · $146,030

## Abstract

Component A Core: Project Summary
The Bureau of Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health (BMIRH) of the New York City
(NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) proposes to continue the
Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) in NYC. PRAMS is a
surveillance system to identify and monitor maternal experiences and behaviors around
the time of pregnancy. The overall goal of BMIRH is to achieve equitable and improved
maternal, infant and reproductive health outcomes in NYC. Three overarching objectives
are to: 1) improve sexual and reproductive health, 2) improve mortality, morbidity and
the overall health of mothers and infants, and 3) promote early childhood development.
Data gathered from PRAMS will be linked to items from the birth certificate offering a
unique source of information on maternal, infant and reproductive health in NYC.
Each month 180 women who gave birth in the previous two to four months will be
randomly selected from NYC birth certificate records to participate in PRAMS. Women
who give birth to low birth weight infants (<2,500 grams) will be oversampled. Women
will be contacted by mail, with telephone follow-up for non-respondents. To ensure
adequate participation, women will be sent $20.00 cash with the first mailing of the
survey. Additionally, the mail questionnaire and telephone interview will be available in
English, Spanish, and Chinese. The data collection cycle for each monthly sample will
lasts up to 95 days. The DOHMH will contract with the Bloustein Center for Survey
Research (BCSR) at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, for data collection and
management activities. BCSR has experience working with several PRAMS sites and
consistently produces high quality data while adhering to the CDC protocol.
PRAMS data will be weighted by CDC to represent NYC resident women giving birth in
NYC. The specific aims of the project are to use PRAMS data to inform NYC's priorities
related to improving maternal and infant health, and its choice of programs, policies and
activities toward that end. PRAMS data will also serve as a NYC specific data source for
monitoring key Healthy People 2020 indicators, several Maternal and Child Heath life
course indicators, and new preventive women's services made available through the
Affordable Care Act. The DOHMH will partner with academics, community groups,
providers and professional organizations to ensure PRAMS data are used to support
programs and policies to improve maternal and infant health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9926850
- **Project number:** 5U01DP006238-05
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK CITY HEALTH/MENTAL HYGIENE
- **Principal Investigator:** Hannah Searing
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $146,030
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-05-01 → 2021-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9926850

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9926850, Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a surveillance system of maternal attitudes, experiences and behaviors that occur around the time of pregnancy to inform local programs and policy. (5U01DP006238-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9926850. Licensed CC0.

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