On 6/28/19 a fix was applied to the 2006-2017 source data, which primarily affected years 2007-2016. The correction increased the yearly number of first births ~4,000 statewide. The yearly percent first birth values increased slightly ~1 percentage point. The effect on repeat birth # and % was negligible.
On 6/28/19 an adjustment to the denominator was implemented with the effect of increasing the yearly percent figure ~2 percentage points.
Due to high (>20%) percentages of records having missing, unknown or invalid
entries during a calendar year, some Measures/Indicators are not available to be
reported on this OASIS Web Query tool.
| Measure | Year(s) not available |
|---|---|
| Births with Late or No Prenatal Care & Percent | 2007 – 2014 |
| Births Inadequate Kotelchuck Index & Percent | 2007 – 2014 |
| Births & Percent Reported Alcohol Use | 2007 - 2014 |
| Births with <5 Prenatal Care Visits & Percent | 2008 – 2014 |
After the final release and posting of 2012 birth data on 4/2/14, we later received an additional 153 birth records of Georgia residents born in Tennessee which added births to the following north Georgia counties:
| Bartow | 2 |
| Bulloch | 1 |
| Catoosa | 69 |
| Chattooga | 1 |
| Dade | 12 |
| Gordon | 6 |
| Murray | 3 |
| Paulding | 1 |
| Walker | 46 |
| Whitfield | 12 |
These were posted 12/16/2014. Therefore reports created between 4/2/2014 and 12/16/2014 using 2012 birth data may have different numbers and rates
In Births for the years 2008 and on, use caution when looking at any rates and probably numbers by Hispanic Ethnicity. For example, the General Fertility Rate of Hispanics in Macon County was 935.1 per 1,000 women in 2008. This rate is unreasonable and could be due to underreporting of Hispanics in the census population denominator, or over-reporting on birth certificates, or a combination of both.
With the release of 2014 birth data, we have implemented the new national standard for calculating gestational age per NCHS that uses the Obstetric Estimate instead of the LMP-based calculation (National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 64, No.5, Measuring Gestational Age in Vital Statistics Data: Transitioning to the Obstetric Estimate. June 1, 2015). This has the effect of lowering rates of Prematurity by roughly 2 percentage points. Further, we retroactively updated the prematurity numbers and rates back to year 2008 in order to provide some trendable figures. You will therefore notice a marked drop in Prematurity rates from 2007.
Since 2008, there has been a sharp increase in Unknown race in Birth data, which had the predominant effect of lowering the number of White births. This effect has been seen nationwide and is associated with the use of the “2003 revision” of the birth certificate (introduced in GA in mid-2007). After consultation with NCHS, we implemented their imputation rule for Unknown race on 1/10/2017.
What effect will this have? For example, statewide this correction has the effect of increasing White Birth and Pregnancy Rates by 4 (more White Births in the numerator), and decreasing White Low Birthweight and Prematurity Rates by 0.1 as well as decreasing White Maternal Mortality Ratio by 3.5 (relatively more White Births in the denominator). While this is not a major effect statewide, there will be local variations that are larger.
The correction is most pronounced in 2008, but lessens in subsequent years, and for most indicators disappears in 2015.
Content Version 06/28/2019