2023 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System Data Dashboard

Sampling and Data Collection

PRAMS selects women from Louisiana's birth certificate data to participate in the survey. To participate, mothers must be Louisiana residents who delivered a live birth in Louisiana. Each month, a random sample of approximately 90–120 mothers is selected. In 2023, the samples were selected among African American and non-African American women separately.

Each monthly sample follows a 90-day cycle of scheduled contact attempts, including a series of mailed questionnaires, online access, and an attempted phone interview for mothers who did not respond to the questionnaires after the failed mail contact attempts. The day after the sample is selected, an introductory letter is mailed to the mothers. The letter is followed by the initial survey packet within seven days, which contains:

• The questionnaire

• Informed consent

• A calendar

• A Louisiana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System informational sheet with a personalized access code to access the online survey

• A small incentive gift

• The promise of a small gift card upon return of the completed survey

If the survey is not completed, a reminder letter is sent seven to 10 days after the initial survey packet is mailed. If the survey is still not completed, a second questionnaire is mailed approximately 12 days after the reminder letter. Again, if the survey is not completed, a third and final questionnaire is mailed approximately two weeks after the second questionnaire.

For women who do not complete the survey by day 63, Bureau of Family Health staff begin telephone follow-up, which continues until day 90. Several methods are used to identify phone numbers for women entering the telephone phase, including Whitepages.com and several public health data sources. Each identified phone number is attempted 15 times before the participant is considered unreachable.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a weighted response rate of at least 50% for data to be considered representative of the population. Louisiana’s 2023 weighted response rate was 63.2%.

More detailed information on the national Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System methodology, including weighting procedures, may be found on the CDC website at cdc.gov/prams/methodology.htm. For additional information about the Louisiana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System methodology, please contact [email protected].

Data Analysis and Dissemination

Louisiana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data are weighted to be reflective of all Louisiana moms delivering a live birth in Louisiana. The Survey Data Analysis (SUDAAN) statistical software is used for data analysis. For each health indicator, this dashboard presents weighted counts and percentages with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) that show how the estimate is reliable or stable. Unweighted counts, not presented in the data dashboard, are the actual number of sampled moms who selected a particular response in the questionnaire. Weighted counts are determined by adjusting the unweighted counts to represent all Louisiana moms.

Data is presented by applying the National Center for Health Statistics Data Presentation Standards for Proportions [2]. The data are unreliable and suppressed with (1) an effective sample size less than 30, (2) absolute value of confidence interval width greater than or equal to 30%, or (3) absolute confidence interval width greater than 5% and relative confidence interval width greater than 130% of the proportion. Suppressed data may be available by special request.

Each year, the Bureau of Family Health develops a state analysis plan, based on the Healthy People 2030 goals and objectives related to maternal and child health, the expressed analytic needs of the Bureau, and the concerns of the Louisiana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System Steering Committee. Additional analyses occur in response to data requests made by Bureau of Family Health staff, community partners, and other researchers.

To get information about methods of data analysis or request suppressed data, please contact [email protected].

Limitations

Self-reporting: The Louisiana Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System data is a self-reported survey, so data are based on responses provided by the person answering the survey [3].

Recall bias: The survey questionnaire asks questions about maternal experiences before, during, and after pregnancies. Mothers may have a difficult time remembering their experiences while filling out the questionnaires [3].

Contacts and Data Requests

Data Requests

To submit a data request, fill out the online data request form.