Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System in Ireland: Methods and Response Rates

  • Published:
Maternal and Child Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To describe response rates and characteristics associated with response to the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System study in Ireland (PRAMS Ireland). Using hospital discharge records of live births at a large, urban, obstetric hospital, a sampling frame of approximately 2,400 mother-infant pairs were used to alternately sample 1,200 women. Mothers’ information including name, address, parity, age and infant characteristics such as sex and gestational age at delivery were extracted from records. Modes of contact included an invitation letter with option to opt out of the study, three mail surveys, a reminder letter and text message reminder for remaining non-respondents. Sixty-one per cent of women responded to the PRAMS Ireland survey over a 133 day response period. Women aged <30, single women, multiparous women and women with a preterm delivery were less likely to respond. Women participating in PRAMS Ireland were similar to the national birth profile in 2011 which had a mean age of 32, were 40 % primiparous, 33 % single or never married and had a 28 % caesarean section rate. Survey and protocol changes are required to increase response rates above recommended Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) thresholds of 65 % within the recommended 90 day data collection cycle. Additional efforts such as stratification and over-sampling are required to increase representativeness among hard to reach groups such as younger, single and multiparous women before expanding the project to an ongoing, national surveillance system in Ireland.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Health insurance is used to pay for private care in hospital or from various health professionals in hospitals or in their practices which may substitute or supplement public health care provided by the state.

  2. A medical card issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE) allows the holder to receive certain health services free of charge. To qualify for a medical card your weekly income must be below a certain figure for your family size. Cash income, savings, investments and property (except for your own home) are taken into account in the means test. The Irish medical card can be viewed as somewhat equivalent to Medicaid in the United States.

References

  1. Shah, N. R., & Bracken, M. B. (2000). A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies on the association between maternal cigarette smoking and preterm delivery. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 182(2), 465–472.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. McDonald, S., Han, Z., Mulla, S., et al. (2010). Overweight and obesity in mothers and risk of preterm birth and low birth weight infants: Systematic review and meta-analyses. BMJ, 341, 3428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. North, R. A., McCowan, L. M., Dekker, G. A., et al. (2011). Clinical risk prediction for pre-eclampsia in nulliparous women: Development of model in international prospective cohort. BMJ, 342, 1875. doi:10.1136/bmj.d1875.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Kuh, D., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Lynch, J., et al. (2003). Life course epidemiology. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57(10), 778.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Huxley, R. R., Shiell, A. W., & Law, C. M. (2000). The role of size at birth and postnatal catch-up growth in determining systolic blood pressure: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Hypertension, 18(7), 815.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Harder, T., Rodekamp, E., Schellong, K., et al. (2007). Birth weight and subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes: A meta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 165(8), 849–857.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Harder, T., Roepke, K., Diller, N., et al. (2009). Birth weight, early weight gain, and subsequent risk of type 1 diabetes: Systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 169(12), 1428–1436.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Schellong, K., Schulz, S., Harder, T., et al. (2012). Birth weight and long-term overweight risk: Systematic review and a meta-analysis including 643,902 persons from 66 studies and 26 countries globally. PLoS One, 7(10), e47776.

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Risnes, K. R., Vatten, L. J., Baker, J. L., et al. (2011). Birthweight and mortality in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 40(3), 647–661.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Morgan, K., McGee, H., Watson, D., et al. (2007). SLÁN 2007: Survey of lifestyle, attitudes & nutrition in Ireland. Dublin 2008.

  11. OECD. (2013). Health at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators.

  12. Economic and Social Research Institute. (2013). Growing up in Ireland: National Longitudinal Study of Children, Infant Cohort. Dublin, Ireland. http://www.growingup.ie/index.php?id=80. Accessed 3 Sept 2013.

  13. McCarthy, F. P., O’Keeffe, L. M., Khashan, A. S., et al. (2013). Association between maternal alcohol consumption in early pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes. Obstetrics and gynecology, 122(4), 830–837.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. US Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2020: Maternal, Infant and Child Health. (2013). http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/overview.aspx?topicid=26. Accessed 21 July 2013.

  15. Department of Health. (2013). Healthy Ireland: A framework for improved health and wellbeing 2013–2025. Dublin 2013.

  16. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). About PRAMS. http://www.cdc.gov/prams/AboutPRAMS.htm.

  17. O’Keeffe, L. M., Kearney, P. K., & Greene, R. A. (2013). Surveillance during pregnancy: Methods and response rates to a hospital based pilot study of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System in Ireland. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. doi:10.1186/1471-2393-13-180.

  18. Economic and Social Research Institute. (2012). Perinatal Statistics Report 2011. Dublin, Ireland, Health Research and Information Division.

  19. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). PRAMS: Methodology. http://www.cdc.gov/prams/methodology.htm. Accessed 1 Sept 2012.

  20. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Availability of PRAMS data for analysis by state and year. http://www.cdc.gov/prams/StatesYearsData.htm.

  21. Gilbert, B. C., Shulman, H. B., Fischer, L. A., et al. (1999). The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Methods and 1996 response rates from 11 states. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 3(4), 199–209.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Central Statistics Office. (2011). Health status and health service utilisation: Quarterly National Household Survey, Quarter 3 2010.

  23. Shulman, H. B., Gilbert, B. C., & Lansky, A. (2006). The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS): Current methods and evaluation of 2001 response rates. Public Health Reports, 121(1), 74.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was conducted with both the administrative and financial support of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre, Cork and staff of Cork University Maternity Hospital. This work was also part funded by the Health Research Board in Ireland under Grant No. PHD/2007/16.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 5th Floor, Cork University Maternity Hospital, Wilton, Cork, Ireland

    Linda M. O’Keeffe & Richard A. Greene

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Linda M. O’Keeffe & Patricia M. Kearney

Authors
  1. Linda M. O’Keeffe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patricia M. Kearney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Richard A. Greene
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linda M. O’Keeffe.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 67 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

O’Keeffe, L.M., Kearney, P.M. & Greene, R.A. Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System in Ireland: Methods and Response Rates. Matern Child Health J 19, 480–486 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-014-1527-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-014-1527-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation