Validation of self-reported maternal and infant health indicators in the pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system

Public health surveillance of key maternal health indicators is critical for monitoring and assessing the effectiveness of policy and programmatic efforts for maternal and infant health. The Pregnancy Risk Assessment [...]
To assess the validity of self-reported maternal and infant health indicators reported by mothers an average of 4 months after delivery. Three validity measures--sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV)--were calculated for pregnancy history, pregnancy complications, health care utilization, and infant health indicators self-reported on the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) questionnaire by a representative sample of mothers delivering live births in New York City (NYC) (n = 603) and Vermont (n = 664) in 2009. Data abstracted from hospital records served as gold standards. All data were weighted to be representative of women delivering live births in NYC or Vermont during the study period. Most PRAMS indicators had >90 % specificity. Indicators with >90 % sensitivity and PPV for both sites included prior live birth, any diabetes, and Medicaid insurance at delivery, and for Vermont only, infant admission to the NICU and breastfeeding in the hospital. Indicators with poor sensitivity and PPV ( Keywords Validation * Pregnancy * Preterm * HIV test Introduction