The purpose of the Birth module is to generate interactive statistics of birth certificate
data. The intended audience is researchers, public health officials, students, and
the general public. The data originates from the birth certificate. Users can select
year, maternal race, maternal age, marital status, region, and birth characteristic
as row or column variables. Using the drop down boxes can further restrict these
same variables. A list of all the birth characteristics can be found in the definitions
page. Users can further sort the output by region, whether alphabetically or numerically.
Users can generate on-the-fly maps and tables of the frequencies, rates, and percentages
of the selected data. Rates cannot be calculated at the zip code level due to the
lack of census data. All rates are calculated per 1000 annual live births. When
rates have been selected 95% and 99% Confidence intervals can also be generated
in the tables.
The interpretation of tables and maps is the users responsibility. Thorough labels
are provided however to make interpretation more intuitive. Many supporting pages
are provided with definitions, examples of rate calculations, Division of Biostatistics
and Health GIS contact information, and frequently asked questions to assist the
user in interpreting this data. Rates with small numbers are unreliable and should
be used cautiously.
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