Query Results for New Mexico Birth Data, by NM Social Determinants of Health - Percentage of All Births that Were Very Pre-Term (less than 32 weeks)

Data Notes

• Infant's Gestational Age

  Gestational age (and preterm-birth) is derived from the obstetric estimate of gestational age.

• New Mexico Resident Births

  This query includes only births to women who were New Mexico residents.

• Social Determinants of Health Queries

  Social determinants of health (SDH) are conditions in the environments in which people live that affect a wide range of health outcomes and risks. For more information on the social determinants of health please visit the Please visit the [https://ibis.doh.nm.gov/topic/population/socialdeterminants/Introduction.html IBIS social determinants topic page].

  In these queries users are able to analyze birth and death data by selected measures that are considered social determinants of health. The measures in these queries consist of census-tract-level estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year samples. The measures were linked by census tract and year to geocoded birth and death data to assign the census tract SDH value to each individual data record. The result is an ecological analysis that allows users to understand the effects that the SDH may have on health outcomes in New Mexico.

  The ACS data represent a 5-year period, whereas the birth and death data are reported by single year. To account for that difference, the 5-year ACS estimates were linked to the birth and death datasets for the mid-year of the ACS survey period. For instance, the 2010-2016 ACS estimate was linked to the 2012 birth data because 2012 is the middle year of the 2010-2016 ACS period. The 2012-2016 ACS estimates were also linked to the 2015 and 2016 birth data because mid-year ACS data for those years (5-year ACS estimates for 2013-2017 and 2014-2018) were not yet available. This methodology, including the reasoning behind our six poverty cutoff categories, was adapted from methodology developed by the CSTE that may be found in the [http://www.cste.org/resource/resmgr/Webinars/CSTEWebinarCTPovertyAnalysis.ppt CSTE Webinar Library].

  The SDH currently allow users to look at individual level birth and death data by an SDH measure for the individual's census tract. It is important to note that this is an ecological analysis. As such, these queries do not allow users to draw conclusions about relationships between individual characteristics and individual outcomes. They represent individual characteristics' association with census tract level demographic characteristics.

Data Sources

Data Issues

• Changes to U.S. Standard Birth Certificate Caused Discontinuity in Data Over Time

  Beginning with 2008 births, New Mexico implemented the 2003 U.S. standard birth certificate in alignment with the National Center for Health Statistics. As a result of national changes to question wording and format, some information is not comparable between the 1989 and 2003 birth certificate revisions. This information includes educational attainment, month and trimester prenatal care began, and tobacco use during pregnancy (and, for New Mexico, calculated gestation). In addition, initially, the transition to new questions may have resulted in more incomplete information. For education and prenatal care, differences between years prior to 2008 and births in 2008 and later years are largely related to changes in reporting rather than changes in educational attainment or prenatal care utilization. For more information, refer to New Mexico Selected Health Statistics [http://nmhealth.org/data/view/vital/560/ Annual Report, 2008], pages 136-139.

• Confidence Intervals for Zero Values

  For rates where the count is zero, a numerator of "3" was used to calculate the confidence interval (per Lilienfeld and Stolley, __Foundations of Epidemiology__, 1994, p. 303).

• Geocoded Data Used in NM-IBIS Queries

  Locating a data record in a New Mexico Small Area, legislative district, or census tract (for social determinants of health) required geocoding (assigning latitude and longitude to) the residential address for each health event (birth, death, cancer incidence, etc.). Sometimes health events, especially those with addresses such as P.O boxes or rural routes, could not be assigned to a geographic area. Excluding these records from the query result introduces bias (underestimates of counts and rates) into the results. This was more likely to occur in rural areas of the state where P.O. boxes and rural routes are more common, but may have occurred in any geographic area.

• Population Data

  {{class BlueText NOTE: September 2024. The population estimates that are currently on NM-IBIS and NMTracking web-based data systems are outdated. New population estimates will be coming soon. They have been delayed because of changes to the way the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics have been reporting their population data since the 2020 decennial census. Unfortunately, it takes several months for all the changes to trickle down through the federal and state systems. Population estimates from *2010 through 2023* will be updated with the newer, more accurate estimates. Rates calculated using the NM-IBIS and NMTracking web-based queries will be updated back to 2010 to reflect those changes. We apologize for the inconvenience.}}

• Social Determinants of Health

  It is important to understand that these queries present an ecological analysis. Individuals have been grouped by census tract, and the attributes of that census tract have been compared to individual attributes. Associations at the census tract level may not apply to individuals in that census tract. The term "ecological fallacy" is used when the findings for the geographic areas are applied to individuals in the area.

• Birth Certificate Data

  Birth certificate information is submitted electronically by hospital medical records staff who use standard mother and facility worksheets and medical charts to collect the needed information. Training of hospital staff is provided by the Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics (BVRHS). The birth certificate information is reviewed by BVRHS for completeness and consistency with state law and NMDOH and national guidelines. BVRHS will contact hospital staff for clarification of missing, inconsistent or incorrect entries. CDC's National Center for Health Statistics provides feedback to BVRHS on data quality and the NMDOH provides feedback to the hospitals to improve data quality and training.