MCH Indicators
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State Resources for MCH Data
Alaska Maternal and Child Health Indicators
A health indicator is a numerical measure that reflects a population's status in a core public health area. An indicator report offers numerical data for a health indicator and its public health context including the current status and ongoing improvement efforts. This site highlights eight key MCH indicators for Alaska: preterm births, low birth weight infants, cesarean births, prenatal care, tobacco use, teen births, fertility rates, and infant mortality. Each indicator has an interactive dashboard for exploring data across demographics such as age, race, ethnicity, Medicaid enrollment, and geographic region. Launched in 2022, the site is updated yearly.
Alaska Births
First published in 2019, the Alaska Births story map showcases birth facility locations in Alaska over the past five years. It begins with a statewide overview of births by facility, followed by regional breakdowns within the
Alaska Public Health Regions. The story concludes by depicting travel distances from residential census area to birth facilities.
Alaska Health Equity Index
Launched in 2019, the Alaska Health Equity Index (HEI) is based on the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, which gauges social vulnerability through socioeconomic and demographic factors that influence the resilience of individuals and communities. The HEI mapping tool uses the latest U.S. Census data to rank 174 census tracts across four domains: socioeconomic status, household composition, minority status, and housing/transportation. Every census tract is assigned a rank within each domain, and these ranks contribute to an overall combined score. Lower values signify higher resilience, while higher values indicate greater vulnerability.
Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative Data Hub
Since 2019, the Alaska Perinatal Quality Collaborative (AKPQC) advances data-driven initiatives that improve maternal and newborn care in Alaska. Its Data Hub presents dashboards visualizing AKPQC quality improvement projects and statewide perinatal indicators. Participating facilities gain insights into their own data alongside state or collaborative-wide information. The platform highlights perinatal topics: prenatal care, maternal risk factors, labor and delivery characteristics, severe maternal morbidity, neonatal outcomes and breastfeeding. Dashboards source data from AKPQC reports, hospital discharge records, and vital records.
Alaska CUBS Data Visualization Tool
The Childhood Understanding Behaviors Survey (CUBS) is a three-year follow-up to participants that responded to the Alaska Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) survey. Initiated in 2006, CUBS is a unique source of population-based data that provides insights into the experiences of families and young children in Alaska. CUBS results from 2015 and beyond are available on this platform. Users can obtain annual survey results, stratify results by demographic or geographic variables of interest, and cross-tabulate information by demographic groups or other survey questions. Data is downloadable as tables, graphs or maps.
Alaska PRAMS Data Visualization Tool
Coming Soon
The Pregnancy Risk-Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), an ongoing survey since 1990, gathers data from mothers of newborns in Alaska. PRAMS is a collaborative project between CDC and the Alaska Division of Public Health. PRAMS collects state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during, and after pregnancy. PRAMS results from 2016 and beyond are available on this platform. Users can access annual survey results, stratify results by demographic or geographic variables of interest, and cross-tabulate information by demographic groups or other survey questions. Data is downloadable as tables, graphs or maps.
National Resources for Alaska Data
KIDS COUNT Alaska
Developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the KIDS COUNT Data Center offers a comprehensive resource for data on the well-being of children, youth and families across the United States, including Alaska. This platform provides interactive visualizations, granting users access to hundreds of indicators and the latest data in a user-friendly format. Through downloadable bar charts, line graphs, maps and tables, users can create reports that highlight trends and statistics. The Alaska Children’s Trust (ACT), a nonprofit organization focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect, has been Alaska’s KIDS COUNT partner since 2016. The MCH Epidemiology Unit works with ACT to ensure that Alaska-specific indicators, including regional data, are updated, and accurately represented.
Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health
The DRC provides point-and-click online access to national, state, and regional findings from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) and the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NS-CSHCN). This site offers convenient access to children’s health data on a variety of important topics, including the children’s health, well-being and access to quality care. These resources are user-friendly and don’t require statistical expertise. They include:
These resources are designed to assist states with child health needs assessment, program planning and evaluation, policy and standards development, monitoring, training, applied research and development of systems of care for children and youth. Both state and national data can be compared, and Alaska-specific data can be accessed through interactive queries. However, note that small sample sizes from Alaska might restrict demographic stratification in queries.
March of Dimes PeriStats
PeriStats compiles data from nine government agencies and organizations, offering current maternal and infant health statistics on key topics such as preterm birth, infant mortality, tobacco use, cesarean birth rates, and health insurance coverage. It provides detailed information by race, ethnicity, and maternal age. PeriStats generates printer-ready graphs, maps, and tables that can be utilized in various reports and presentations enabling comparisons between states, counties, cities and the United States. Over 60,000 graphs, maps and tables are available on PeriStats, and data are referenced to the relevant source and aligned with Healthy People 2030 objectives. Data is regularly updated, proving useful for fact-finding, health assessments, grant writing, policy development, and presentations.
Title V Information System (TVIS)
The Title V MCH Program is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). TVIS aids informed decision-making for MCH needs by gathering data from national surveys, state health departments, health care facilities and more. This data may be used for planning and improving services. TVIS offers downloadable charts and tables for National Performance Measures (NPM) showing national and state data along with each state’s goals. It also has downloadable charts and tables for National Outcome Measures (NOM) displaying national and state data trends. The latest data for both NPMs and NOMs can be viewed by demographic categories including race/ethnicity, income, insurance type, and urban/rural geography. The DPH Section of Women’s, Children’s and Family Health is the Title V agency for Alaska.
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)
The YRBSS, established by the CDC, has been conducted in Alaska since 1995. It is a survey of students in grades 9-12 in public schools, including schools that teach students facing higher risks. The Youth Online Data Analysis Tool gives access to national and state YRBS data. This data can be filtered and sorted by race/ethnicity, sex, grade, and sexual orientation. Surveys may also be filtered and sorted by location and year. Users can create custom tables, maps, graphs and conduct statistical tests. The Alaska Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) publishes data dashboards based on statewide and district-level results when sample size requirements are met. The 2021 Alaska YRBS was canceled due to COVID-19 challenges. The latest Alaska YRBS results are available
here.
