AK - PRAMS
State: AK

Skill Area: Data Analysis and Monitoring

Internship summary
The Section of Women's, Children's, and Family Health (WCFH) in the State of Alaska Division of Public Health is comprised of six main areas or units: Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening, Family Planning, Genetic and Specialty Clinics, Infant Screening and Testing Programs, Oral Health, and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Epidemiology. This intern would work with the MCH Epidemiology Unit. The MCH Epi Unit houses several surveillance programs that gather data to use in guiding public health programs and policies on maternal and child health issues. These are the Alaska Birth Defects Registry (ABDR) (including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), the Maternal-Infant Mortality Review and Child Death Review (MIMR-CDR), the Alaska Surveillance of Child Abuse and Neglect (Alaska SCAN), the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), and the Childhood Understanding Behaviors Survey (CUBS), a follow-up to PRAMS. The Unit is also involved in maintaining and updating MCH-related health status indicators through the Maternal and Child Health Indicator Surveillance Project.

The Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Unit's purpose is to provide reliable data on maternal and child health issues for use in planning and evaluating programs, preventing poor health outcomes, and guiding public health policy. Through our programs and partners, we collect, analyze and interpret information on women, children and families. The MCH Epidemiology Unit began during 1994 with a single person and has since grown to 15 staff managing six state surveillance programs. In addition, we are involved in cutting edge public health research that has direct application for programs in Alaska, the US, and worldwide. Our research has been published in dozens of peer-reviewed articles.

Purpose
The purpose of this internship is to analyze the wealth of qualitative data that has been accrued in the Alaska PRAMS program. In 1990 Alaska was the seventh state to join the PRAMS programs, 2010 will mark 20 years of data collection for Alaska PRAMS. Qualitative data capture has always been a part of PRAMS protocol. Marginal comments associated with each and every question are entered, as well as what PRAMS refers to as "back page comments" where the mother responding can write anything she would like after "Please use this space for any additional comments you would like to make about the health of mothers and babies in Alaska." All comments are captured exactly as the mother wrote them (if by mail) or spoke them (if by phone). The PRAMS questionnaire collects information from mothers of newborns on a variety of topics including, but not limited to, substance use, domestic violence, prenatal care, maternal morbidity, breastfeeding, well-baby visits, contraceptive practices, mental health, infant care, etc. They are asked about the time periods before, during and after pregnancy. The topics have changed when the questionnaire has changed over time. Alaska has used five different Phases of the survey. The main focus of the proposed internship will be on back page comments from the most recent years of data collection.

Goals
The primary goal of this project is to synthesize back page comment data from Phases 4 and 5 (covering birth years 2000-2008) such that descriptive demographics of women commenting can be given and so that feedback of a temporal nature can be shared with particular agencies. Secondary goal (time permitting) would be do synthesize marginal comments on topics of interest. Tertiary goal (time permitting) would synthesize Phase 3 back page comment data (1996-1999). Another goal of this project is to have SAS program templates and procedural summaries created that the project can use for future years of qualitative data analyses.

Objectives
1. Tease out topic areas and sub-areas relating to maternal and child health from a database of general comments by key words and phrases that may or may not be spelled correctly.
2. Create topic/sub-topic summaries of comments that can be shared with coalitions, agencies, or other interested groups.
3. Create a procedural summary document that the Alaska PRAMS program will have available to reference for future qualitative analyses.

Data or analytic tasks and activities involved
Link the comment SAS datasets to the analytical SAS datasets. Create export files from this linked dataset to use in the qualitative software package. Subsequently create organized Word summary documents that can then be shared with programs and agencies who have an interest in the specified topic area.

Required data or analytic skills
Knowledge of SAS is required. Experience with SUDAAN is recommended, but should gain experience with SUDAAN during the internship. NVivo software is also available for use. Previous experience working with and analyzing qualitative data is preferable. Must be able to work independently and have strong interpersonal, communication and writing skills.

Begin date
May or June 2010

Housing assistance available?
Staff would be able to help get the word out to be notified of temporary housing availability for the summer. The office is centrally located in midtown.