Previously documented high percentages of unknown values in the previous live births/previous termination fields in 2006-2015 data were fixed 6/28/19. This fix has the effect of increasing the yearly number of first pregnancies ~9,000 statewide and the percent of first pregnancies ~3 percentage points. Repeat pregnancy # and % were affected slightly.
Related, a fix was applied 6/28/19 to 2016/2017 data which had the effect of decreasing the yearly number of first pregnancies ~3,000 and the percent first pregnancies ~3 percentage points, while increasing the yearly number of repeat pregnancies ~6,900 and percent repeat pregnancies ~2.9 percentage points.
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 Pregnancy Rate by 4 (more White births in the numerator). 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