Infant Mortality Definitions

• Fetal & Infant Conditions
• Birth Defects
• SIDS
• External Causes

Early Neonatal Period

The period from birth to 6 days of age.

Ethnicity

Hispanic or Latino includes persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. Non-Hispanic + Hispanic may not equal the total number of events due to persons of unknown ethnicity.

Infant Mortality Rate

Formula = [Number of infant deaths / Live births] * 1,000. (Rates maybe cause specific)

International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM)

A statistical classification system, in use since 1979, that arranges diseases and injuries into groups according to established criteria. It is used to improve comparability of cause of death statistics reported by different governmental entities. Most ICD-9-CM codes are numeric and consist of three, four or five numbers and a description. The codes are revised approximately every 10 years by the World Health Organization and annual updates are published by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), now the Center for Medicare, Medicaid Services.

International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, (ICD-10)

An alphanumeric coding scheme that replaces ICD-9, and used for mortality data since 1999. ICD-10 codes were developed by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centres for Classification of Diseases.

Late Neonatal Period

The period after birth 7 through 27 days of age.

Neonatal Period

The period from birth to 27 days of age.

Non-Rural

Any county with 50,000 or more total population according to the United States decennial census of 2010 or any future such census (GA Code § 31-6-2 and 31-7-94.1).

Percent by Cause

Formula = [The number of deaths from a selected cause / Total number of deaths] * 100.

Percent within State

Formula = [The number of deaths in a selected geography / Total number of deaths in the state] * 100.

Percent of Births within State

Formula = [The number of births in a selected geography / Total births in the state] *100.

Postneonatal Period

The period after birth 28 through 364 days of age.

Race

Per the Federal Office of Management and Budget, Directive 15 (1997),

• White is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa;
• Black or African-American is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa;
• Asian is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand and Vietnam;
• American Indian/Alaska Native is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment;
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands;
• Multiracial is a person declaring 2 or more of these races.

Note: Rates for years prior to year 2000 use population estimates for the denominator that adhere to a different Federal standard for race: White, Black, Asian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native. So, unlike years 2000 and after, Multiracial is not included. Also, Asian by itself is not available because it was grouped with Pacific Islander (After 1999 Asian is separate from Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander).

Rates using Census Population Estimates in the denominator are not calculated when a selected race is not available in the denominator, or zero.

Nevertheless, selections available in OASIS' Race query box reflect the 1997 Race classifications described above. Most of the numerators used in indicators in Oasis *do* have the year 2000 race selections. Therefore, selections of multiple years that span <2000 and 2000+ will return a *number (count)* for all race selections, but the *rates* may be limited by the change in racial classifications the federal government used as noted above. In these cases you will see NA₁ in the output cell (NA₁ therefore by definition will only show up in rates for the years before 2000).

In some cases, the numerator's race classification may be more precise, or up to date, than the Census population estimate counterpart used in the denominator. You may find that there are a number of births of a given race for a county/age-group selection, but no count of population estimated for the denominator. In such cases where the race selection was available for both the numerator and the denominator, but the denominator's estimate was zero, you will see a NA₂. If the numerator was greater than the denominator, but the denominator was > 0, you will see a NA₃ returned.

Rate

Both Numerator and Denominator can be Place, Race, Age, Time, Ethnicity, Sex-specific:
Rate = [ N _PRATES-M / D _PRATES ] * 1000
where

M - Measure(s)
N - Number of Infant Deaths
D - Number of Live Births

Rates that use Census Population Estimates in the denominator are unable to be calculated when the selected population is Unknown.

Rural

Any county having a population of less than 50,000 according to the United States decennial census of 2010 or any future such census (GA Code § 31-6-2 and 31-7-94.1).

Selected Causes Total

‘Selected Causes Total’ shows up in Web Query output tables that have been Stratified, and refers only to any subcategories of a given “parent” cause category. Please note that if a parent cause category is chosen in addition to subcategories, ‘Selected Causes Total’ refers only to the subcategories. Example:

‘Selected Causes Total’ refers only to Falls and Drowning, not the parent category External Causes of which Falls and Drowning are a part. The same principle applies to Selected Races, Selected Ethnicities, etc.

Socioeconomic (SES) Vulnerability

Socioeconomic (SES) Vulnerability refers to the socioeconomic status domain/subset of the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) 2020. Socioeconomic vulnerability ranks census tracts within Georgia on 5 factors: below 150% poverty, unemployed, housing cost burden, no high school diploma, and no health insurance. Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater vulnerability/lower socioeconomic status. Quintiles of the percentile rankings were used to create class breaks (Very Low, Low, Average, High and Very High SES Vulnerability). Keep in mind that “Very Low” SES Vulnerability equates to a High SES status. For more information see https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html. For data dictionary click here.

V2.9 (1/4/2024)