A User's Guide

to the

The Public Health Bulletin

The Public Health Bulletin is a monthly publication of the Center for Health Statistics. The

primary audience includes Area Managers and Health Unit Administrators and their staff. Using

a standardized format, each Bulletin typically has six pages of data - two pages for each

county, two pages for the Management Area in which that county resides, and two pages with

the State totals. This enables trend comparisons to be made between the county, Area, and

State.

At this time, the Bulletin focuses exclusively on Maternal and Child Health issues. These

particular indicators have been selected because of specific requests for these data and

because there is a sufficient number of these events to make publishing the data feasible. All

of the data are taken from the Birth Certificate database for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The tables in the Bulletin include counts (and percents) for:

·                            Total Births (first table)

·                            Births to Women Under Age 20 (teen births) (2^nd & 3^rd tables)

·                            Births to Unmarried Women (4^th & 5^th tables)

·                            Births to Unmarried Women Under Age 20 (6^th & 7^th tables)

·                            Births to Women Under Age 18 (young teens) (8^th & 9^th tables)

·                            Low Birth Weight (under 2500 grams) Births (10^th & 11^th tables)

·                            Births to Women With Less Than 12 Years of Education (12^th & 13^th tables)

·                            Births to Women With First Trimester Prenatal Care (14^th & 15^th tables)

·                            Births to Smoking Mothers (16^th & 17^th tables)

·                            Births by Cesarean Deliveries (18^th & 19^th tables)

·                            Preterm Births (Gestational Age Less Than 37 Weeks) (20^th & 21^st tables)

The first table of data reports the total number of live births to residents of the county (or

Area) in question. These are tallied by the month of the birth, with the calendar year total

at the right. Reading horizontally, trends over time can be tracked. Comparisons with the same

month in the previous year(s) are done by reading vertically.

Subsequent tables are subsets of the first table. Each pair of tables consists of a count of

the number of events and the percent of the corresponding total events in the first table. For

example, the second table is the "Total Number of Births to Women Under Age 20" by month and

year. The third table is entitled "Births to Women Under Age 20 as a Percent of All Live

Births." All succeeding tables are in pairs and follow the same format.

At the right side of each table is a notation indicating whether the data are considered

"final" or "provisional." The data are "final" when they have been thoroughly cleaned and

edited, and reporting is effectively complete. Final data are the basis of the formal, annual

reports produced by the Center for Health Statistics. "Provisional" data are still being

cleaned and edited.

More importantly, provisional data are often not yet complete. This is particularly a problem

for the most recent months. The most current month will have smaller numbers of births than

preceding months. As a result of the delays inherent in the system, the number of events for

the most recent months will increase as the birth certificates are received and they are

entered into the database. Consequently, a report of February data, which is tabulated in

March, will show fewer births than February data which is tabulated in April.

Reporting delays will be especially noticeable in border counties near hospitals in

neighboring states (e.g., Miller County near Texarkana, Texas and Crittenden County near

Memphis, Tennessee). Since the Division of Vital Records is entirely dependent upon those

states for the submission of the data, there may be delays of as much as six months, and

sudden changes in counts may occur in those counties. In order to ensure that the most

complete data are available, older reports should be disposed of as new ones arrive each

month.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome and should be directed to:

               Priya N. Kakkar

               Arkansas Department of Health

               Center for Health Statistics

               4815 W. Markham, Slot H-19

               Little Rock, AR 72205

               (501) 661-2036

               priya.kakkar@Arkansas.gov