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INTRODUCTION
This report summarizes information about the natality, mortality, and morbidity of mothers,
children and youth. Indicators have been selected for their relevancy to the Maternal and Child
Health (MCH) programs administered by the Arkansas Department of Health for the delivery of
comprehensive maternal, child, and adolescent health services. Thus, their selection reflects
priorities established for the Arkansas MCH program. This report also takes into consideration
national and international studies that have attempted to delineate health risk factors for mothers
and children. This report contains data for many indicators used in other studies; however, the
indicators examined here are by no means exhaustive. It is designed to make these indicators
easily accessible, while at the same time allowing flexibility to users in their selection. To
accomplish this, the frequencies of particular events or conditions, along with rates or percentages
are presented in concise tables.
The primary time focus of this report is calendar year 2001. Data are presented for the state as a
whole to satisfy the needs of planners, policy makers, and providers of health services at the
regional and local levels.
Data from birth certificates measuring the demographic, socioeconomic, and health status of the
mother as they may affect the health and survival of the infant are tabulated. These variables
include race, age, education, and marital status of the mother, birth order, prenatal care, maternal
tobacco use and weight gain during pregnancy, medical risk factors affiliated with the pregnancy,
and complications of labor and delivery. Outcome data on birthweight, Apgar scores, and
congenital anomalies, as well as fetal, neonatal, perinatal, postneonatal, and infant mortality are
also tabulated by several measures of demographic and socioeconomic status of mother. The
reader should be aware that outcome data for neonatal, perinatal, postneonatal, and infant
mortality are derived from the matched birth-infant death record. Therefore, total number for these
items are not representative numbers from the birth totals.
All birth certificate data are by place of residence, unless otherwise specified. This means that
events have been assigned to the area where the person lives (usually legal residence) regardless of
where the events occurred. For births and infant deaths, the reference is to the residence of the
mother. For infant deaths, the place of residence at death may differ from the place of residence
at birth. The published tables of infant death data are all based on residence at birth. Fetal
deaths in this report are usually by place of residence of the mother.
Sources of Data
The main source of the statistics in this report is the vital records system maintained by the
Arkansas Division of Vital Records. Three specific files are used:
The Birth Certificate File containing information reported on live birth certificates.
The Fetal Death Certificate File containing information from the fetal death certificate.
The Death Certificate File containing information reported on death certificates.
Summary tables using United States data and Arkansas data for years 1965-2001 are found in
publications produced by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Limitations and Caveats
The vital records data files provide an opportunity for studying the characteristics and problems of
the health of mothers and infants so that health planners and administrators can better direct
programs to address problems. The vital records registration system provides an effective means for
measuring health outcomes by place over time. However, this information has a number of
limitations, including completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of registration, in addition to
quality control and classification problems for variables such as medical complications of labor
and/or delivery. The reporting of live births and infant deaths is considered to be essentially
complete for births occurring in Arkansas. Fetal deaths are considered as under-registered, but to
an unknown extent.
Errors occasionally occur in coding and keypunching large numbers of records. Extensive
computer edits and manual reviews of records are performed as this report is prepared. Identified
errors are corrected when found.
A certain degree of loss of timeliness is an inevitable structural limitation of the vital records
system. There are delays between the occurrence of a vital event and the completion of the legal
document, between completion of the legal document and its filing, and between its filing and the
completion of the computer processing. In addition, calendar intervals such as months or years
must elapse and all records for that interval must be filed and processed before an analysis of all
data for that interval can be conducted. For example, this publication focuses on events which
occurred in a given calendar year. A birth or infant death happening in January will not be
analyzed for a year or more whereas one taking place in December will be considered in only a
few months.
Note that in certain places, such as 'Selected Live Birth Characteristics by Race of Mother' or
'Selected Live Birth Characteristics by Sex of Child', column values may not equal the total due to
records in which the value of the by-variables is unknown.
Sample copies of the current certificates of live birth, fetal death and death are included as
appendices to this report.
Notes
There are two ways of calculating infant mortality rates: (1) period-based, and (2) cohort-based.
Period-based rates are much more convenient and timely to calculate. They are done by dividing
the number of infant deaths in a given calendar year by the number of births in that year and
multiplying by 1,000.
The cohort-based rate is calculated by following each infant born in a given year. The number of
deaths to these infants before their first birthday are counted, regardless of which calendar year
the death takes place.
The disadvantage of the cohort-based rate is that it requires a full year elapse after the birth of
the last infant on December 31 before the rate can be calculated. A serious problem with the
period-based rates may arise in areas experiencing extensive immigration, emigration or rapid
changes in infant mortality. Many of the deaths that happen in the early part of a calendar year
befall infants born late in the previous year; thus the more recent year is credited with events
that transpired in the foregoing year.
This report uses the standard technique of period-based mortality rates.
The birth rates for 1995-1999 on pages 1-4 and 1-5 differ from those in earlier publications. With
the release of the 2000 census figures the estimated populations for these years have been updated.
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