Example of a Fetal Death Table, Trendline, and Bar Chart SCAN users should ask themselves, "What question am I trying to answer?" or "What am I researching?" Answering these questions will help the user to determine which variables should be selected during each step of the table creation process. For this example, we were interested in seeing South Carolina's outcome by race breakdown and rates for estimated pregnancy in 2001. In order to generate the above table that answers our research interests, the following step-by-step process was followed on the "Create a Table" page. STEP 1 Step One defines the variable whose levels will occupy the rows of the table. Users can select year, maternal race, gestational age, weight, or region. For this example, Year was chosen. STEP 2 Step Two defines the variable whose levels will occupy the columns of the table. Users can select year, maternal race, gestational age, weight, or region. For this example, Maternal Race was chosen. STEP 3 Step Three specifies the years of interest. If year is the chosen row or column variable, the years you select in this step will occupy the rows or columns of your table. If year is neither a row nor column variable in your table, all years selected in this step will be summed together and shown in your table. For this example, we selected a three years, 1999, 2000, 2001. STEP 4 Step Four is an optional step. In this example, we did not make any specifications here. If we were interested in seeing this same information for a particular combination of maternal race, gestational age, weight, or region this is the step where those levels would be defined. STEP 5 Step Five specifies the output level for the table. Users can select counties or DHEC regions. For our example, we selected Counties. STEP 6 Step Six defines the geographic region to tally for your table. Users can select the entire state, a single county, or any group of counties. If trendline or bar charts are desired, users may select up to 15 counties. To select a county simply click on the chosen county in the "Region" box and then use the down arrow button so that the selected counties move to the "Selected Region" box, or double click on the chosen region. Multiple regions can be selected only when region is chosen as a row or column variable. For this example, we did not make any changes to this step; we used the default setting for All Counties in South Carolina. STEP 7 Step Seven specifies the numeric output for the table. Users can select from frequencies only, frequencies and rates, 3 consecutive years frequencies and rates, frequencies and percents by column, or frequencies and percents by row. For this example, Frequency and Rates were selected. STEP 8 Step Eight allows the user to select the output presentation format. The user can select any of the listed options: Table, Trendline and/or Bar Chart (Table is always generated). Some options will not be appropriate depending on the variables that users have selected in the previous steps. For this example Table and Bar Chart was selected. SUBMIT REQUEST Submit the request after completing the step-by-step process. An output table will be promptly returned to the user based upon the specifications. Once the table is returned, the user can view, print, or download the table. The rotate option on the table allows the row and column variables to rotate. All specifications from the step-by-step process are defined in the table's title and labeling. Double-check this information to make sure you've obtained the information to answer your research objective. TRENDLINE AND BAR CHART In order to generate a Trendline the user must select Year as a column variable in step 2, and must also select consecutive years in step 3. Below is an example of trendline and bar chart. Maternal Race is still used as a row variable but the column variable this time was Year and in step 3 we selected six consecutive years: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. Frequency by Column was chosen in step 7. INTERPRETATION OF DATA Interpretation of the table is the user's responsibility. Thorough labels are provided to make interpretation more intuitive. For this example, the fetal deaths for the year 2001 were higher for blacks, and other races than for whites. The fetal death rate for whites and others is much lower than blacks. For every 1000 black women in South Carolina in the year 2001, 16.6 have a reportable fetal death as compared to 6.4 for whites. The frequency of fetal death seems to be increasing for both white and black but their rates remain relativity stable. Rates for the unknown race group are unstable and should be used with caution. WHEN USING THE TABLE Please reference any data extracted from the SCAN system as follows: Source: Division of Biostatistics, PHSIS, SC DPH.