Births
· Abnormal Conditions of the Newborn (Martin, et al., 2003):
o Anemia: hemoglobin level of less than 13.0 g/dL or a
hemocrit of less than 39 percent.
o Birth
Injury: impairment of the
infant's
body function or structure due to adverse influences which
occurred at birth.
o Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: a syndrome of altered perinatal growth and development
occurring in infants born of women who consumed excessive
amounts of alcohol during pregnancy.
o
Hyaline
Membrane Disease/RDS: a
disorder primarily of prematurity, manifested clinically by
respiratory distress and pathologically by pulmonary hyaline
membranes and incomplete expansion of the lungs at birth.
o Meconium
Aspiration Syndrome:
aspiration of meconium by the fetus or newborn affecting
the lower respiratory system.
o Assisted
Ventilation: a
mechanical method of assisting respiration for newborns with
respiratory failure.
o Seizures: a seizure of any etiology.
· Apgar
Score: a summary measure
of an infant's clinical condition based on heart rate, respiratory
effort, muscle tone, reflex irritability, and color taken
at one and five minutes after delivery.
Each of the factors is given a score of 0, 1, or 2;
the sum of these five values is the Apgar score which can
range from 0 to 10. A
score of 10 is optimal and a low score (usually considered
to be less than 7) is considered an indication of potential
health problems and raises concerns about the subsequent health
and survival of the infant.
· Birth
Weight: the first weight of
the fetus or newborn obtained after delivery.
Birth weight is recorded in grams.
· Complications
of Labor and/or Delivery (Martin, et al., 2003):
o Febrile: a fever greater than 100 degrees F or 38 C occurring
during labor and/or delivery.
o Moderate
or Heavy Meconium: meconium
consists of undigested debris from swallowed amniotic fluid,
various products of secretion, excretion, and shedding by
the gastrointestinal tract; moderate to heavy amounts of meconium
in the amniotic fluid noted during labor and/or delivery.
o Premature
Rupture of Membranes (more than 12 hours):
rupture of the membranes at any time during pregnancy and more
than 12 hours before the onset of labor.
o Abruptio
Placenta: premature separation
of a normally implanted placenta from the uterus.
o Placenta
Previa: implantation of the
placenta over or near the internal opening of the cervix.
o Other
Excessive Bleeding: the
loss of a significant amount of blood from conditions other
than abruptio placenta or placenta previa.
[An EBC software cross-edit does not allow this complication
to be selected unless blood loss greater than or equal to
750 cc for vaginal deliveries and 1,200 cc for cesarean deliveries
is entered.]
o Seizures During Labor: maternal seizures occurring during labor from
any cause.
o Precipitous
Labor (less than 3 hours):
extremely rapid labor and delivery lasting less then
3 hours.
o Prolonged
Labor (more than 20 hours):
abnormally slow progress of labor lasting more than
20 hours.
o Dysfunctional
Labor: failure to progress
in a normal pattern of labor.
o Breech/Malpresentation:
at birth, the presentation
of the fetal buttocks rather than the head, or other malpresentation.
o Cephalopelvic
Disproportion: the relationship of the size, presentation, and
position of the fetal head to the maternal pelvis which prevents
dilation of the cervix and/or descent of the fetal head.
o Cord
Prolapse: premature expulsion
of the umbilical cord in labor before the fetus is delivered.
o Anesthetic Complications: any complication during labor and/or delivery
brought on by an anesthetic agent or agents.
o Fetal
Distress: signs indicating fetal
hypoxia (deficiency in amount of oxygen reaching fetal tissues).
· Congenital
Anomalies of the Child (Martin, et al., 2003):
o Central
Nervous System Anomaly:
includes anencephalus, spina bifida/meningocele, hydrocephalus,
microcephalus, or other anomaly of the brain, spinal cord,
or nervous system.
o Heart
Malformation: congenital
anomaly of the heart.
o Other
Circulatory/Respiratory Anomaly: other specified anomalies of the circulatory
or respiratory systems.
o Gastrointestinal
Anomaly: includes rectal atresia/stenosis,
tracheo-esophageal fistula/esophageal atresia, omphalocele/gastroschisis,
or other anomaly of the gastrointestinal system.
o Urogenital
Anomaly: includes malformed
genitalia, renal agenesis, or other anomaly of the organs
concerned in the production and excretion of urine, together
with organs of reproduction.
o Cleft
Lip/Palate: cleft lip is a fissure or elongated opening of
the lip; cleft palate is a fissure in the roof of the mouth.
o Polydactyly/Syndactyly/Adactyly: polydactyly is the presence of more than five
digits on either hands and/or feet; syndactyly is having fused
or webbed fingers and/or toes; adactyly is the absence of
fingers and/or toes.
o Club
Foot: deformities of the foot,
which is twisted out of shape or position.
o Other
Musculoskeletal/Integumental Anomaly: includes diaphragmatic hernia or other anomaly
of the muscles, skeleton, or skin.
o Down's
Syndrome: the most common chromosomal
defect with most cases resulting from an extra chromosome.
o Other
Chromosomal Anomaly: any other chromosomal aberration.
· Live
Birth: the complete expulsion
or extraction from its mother of a product of conception,
irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, which, after such
separation, breathes or shows any evidence of life, such as
beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or
definite movement of voluntary muscles.
· Low
Birth Weight: birth
weight of less than 2,500 grams or approximately 5 pounds,
8 ounces. Prior to
1989, New Jersey defined low birth weight as 2,500 grams or
less.
· Marital
Status: the marital status
of the mother for statistical purposes is determined for
data
years after 1988 by the response to the birth certificate
item, "Mother married? (At birth, conception, or any time between)".
· Medical
Risk Factors for This Pregnancy (Martin, et al., 2003):
o Anemia: hemoglobin level of less than 10.0 g/dL during
pregnancy or a hematocrit of less than 30 percent during pregnancy.
o Cardiac
Disease: disease of the heart.
o Acute
or Chronic Lung Disease:
disease of the lungs during pregnancy.
o Diabetes:
metabolic disorder characterized
by excessive discharge of urine and persistent thirst; includes
juvenile onset, adult onset, and gestational diabetes during
pregnancy.
o Genital
Herpes: infection of the skin
of the genital area by herpes simplex virus.
o Hydramnios/Oligohydramnios: any noticeable excess (hydramnios) or lack (oligohydramnios)
of amniotic fluid.
o Hemoglobinopathy:
a blood disorder caused
by alteration in the genetically determined molecular structure
of hemoglobin (example: sickle
cell anemia).
o Chronic
Hypertension: blood
pressure persistently greater than 140/90, diagnosed prior
to onset of pregnancy or before the 20th week of gestation.
o Pregnancy-Associated
Hypertension: an
increase in blood pressure of at least 30mm Hg systolic or
15mm Hg diastolic on two measurements taken 6 hours apart
after the 20th week of gestation.
o Eclampsia: the occurrence of convulsions and/or coma unrelated
to other cerebral conditions in women with signs and symptoms
of preeclampsia.
o Incompetent
Cervix: characterized by painless
dilation of the cervix in the second trimester or early in
the third trimester of pregnancy, with premature expulsion
of membranes through the cervix and ballooning of the membranes
into the vagina, followed by rupture of the membranes and
subsequent expulsion of the fetus.
o Previous
Infant 4,000+ Grams: the
birth weight of a previous live-born child was over 4,000
grams (8 pounds, 14 ounces).
o Previous
Preterm or Small-for-Gestational Age Infant: previous birth of an infant prior to term (before
37 completed weeks of gestation) or of an infant weighing
less than the tenth percentile for gestational age using a
standard weight-for-age chart.
o Renal
Disease: kidney disease.
o Rh
Sensitization: the process or state of becoming sensitized to
the Rh factor as when an Rh-negative woman is pregnant with
an Rh-positive fetus.
o Uterine
Bleeding: any clinically significant bleeding during the
pregnancy taking into consideration the stage of pregnancy;
any second or third trimester bleeding of the uterus prior
to the onset of labor.
· Multiple
Births: individual
births in twin, triplet, quadruplet, and higher order multiple
deliveries.
· Obstetric
Procedures (Martin, et al., 2003):
o Amniocentesis: surgical transabdominal perforation of the uterus
to obtain amniotic fluid to be used in the detection of genetic
disorders, fetal abnormalities, and fetal lung maturity.
o Electronic
Fetal Monitoring: monitoring with external devices applied to the
maternal abdomen or with internal devices with an electrode
attached to the fetal scalp and a catheter through the cervix
into the uterus, to detect and record fetal heart tones and
uterine contractions.
o Induction
of Labor: the initiation of uterine
contractions before the spontaneous onset of labor by medical
and/or surgical means for the purpose of delivery.
o Stimulation
of Labor: augmentation of previously
established labor by use of oxytocin.
o Tocolysis: use of medications to inhibit preterm uterine
contractions to extend the length of pregnancy and, therefore,
avoid a preterm birth.
o Ultrasound: visualization of the fetus and the placenta
by means of sound waves.
· Plurality: singleton, twin, triplet, quadruplet, etc.
· Previous
Pregnancy Terminations:
from the mother's pregnancy history on the certificate
of live birth, a previous spontaneous or induced termination
of pregnancy at any time after conception that did not result
in a live birth.
· Teen
Birth: birth
to a mother under 20 years of age.
· Tobacco,
Alcohol, and Drug Use during Pregnancy: use of these substances self-reported by mother.
· Trimester
of Pregnancy: the first trimester includes the first 12 weeks
of pregnancy, the second trimester encompasses the thirteenth
through twenty-fourth weeks and the third trimester is the
period after the twenty-fourth week through delivery.
· Very
Low Birth Weight: birth
weight of less than 1,500 grams or approximately 3 pounds,
5 ounces.
Deaths
·
Cause
of Death Classification:
a system of specification of the diseases and/or injuries
which led to death and the sequential order of their occurrence. The version of the system in use in 2002 was
the International Statistical
Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth
Revision, (ICD-10) sponsored by the World Health Organization. Reports in this series prior to 1999 used the ninth revision (ICD-9).
·
Comparability
Ratio:
a number used to measure the effect of changes in classification
and coding rules between revisions of the International Classification
of Diseases (ICD). Comparability
ratios less than 1.0 result from fewer deaths being classified
to cause x under ICD-10 compared with the comparable cause under
ICD-9. Ratios greater
than 1.0 result from more deaths being classified to cause
x under ICD-10.
Preliminary comparability ratios used in this report
should not be used on data prior to 1994 and caution should
be exercised when applying the ratios to age-, race-, or sex-specific
data.
· Fetal
Death: death prior to the
complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product
of conception; the fetus shows no signs of life such as breathing
or beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord,
or definite movement of voluntary muscles.
Fetal deaths are also referred to as stillbirths, miscarriages,
or abortions.
· Infant
Death: death within the first
year of life.
· Maternal
Death: a death in which the
certifying physician has designated a maternal condition as
the underlying cause of death.
In the Tenth Revision of the International
Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health
Problems, this includes only those deaths assigned to
causes related to or aggravated by pregnancy or pregnancy
management (ICD-10 codes O00-O95, O98-O99, and A34) and which
occur within 42 days after delivery or other termination of
pregnancy.
· Neonatal
Death: death of an infant within
the first 27 days of life.
· Postneonatal
Mortality: death
of an infant from 28 days to one year of life.
· Underlying
Cause of Death: the
disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading
directly to death or the circumstances of the unintentional
injury or violence which produced the fatal injury.
All cause-of-death data in this report relate to the
underlying cause of death coded from the death certificate.
· Years
of Potential Life Lost (YPLL): a measure of the number of years of life not
lived by each individual who died before reaching a predetermined
age. The YPLL for a population is computed as the
sum of all the individual YPLL for individuals who died during
a specific time period. Prior
reports in this series contained tables of YPLL, but the
same
data are now available from CDC's WISQARS query system.
All
Tables in the Report
· Not
Stated: an inclusive term used
to represent data which are missing, unknown, not available,
or not classifiable.
The presentation of
vital statistics in the form of rates and ratios facilitates
comparisons between political subdivisions with populations
of different sizes or between subgroups of a population.
Crude rates are calculated by dividing the number of
events of a type that occur to the residents of an area (e.g.,
births, deaths) by the resident population of an area or subgroup.
The events are limited to those that occur within a
specific time period, usually a year, and the population is,
in general, the mid-year estimate of the resident population
of the area, although census counts as of April 1 may be used
in decennial census years.
Crude rates are expressed in terms of occurrences within
a standard, rounded population, usually 1,000 or 100,000.
In order to compare
birth and death experiences among various ages and races or
between the sexes, rates may be computed for subgroups of
the population. These are referred to as age-, race-, or sex-specific
rates and are calculated by dividing the relevant events within
a subgroup by the population in the subgroup.
Death rates from specific causes may also be calculated,
with the numerator consisting of the deaths from the particular
cause in an area and the denominator comprised of the population
at risk of the disease or condition.
The numbers of births
and deaths in an area are directly related to the demographic
characteristics of the area's population.
In comparing rates over time or among geographic areas,
it is helpful to eliminate the effects of the differences
in the populations' demographic characteristics on the comparison.
This can be accomplished through adjustments of the
rates for the particular characteristics of interest.
The most common type of adjustment of rates is for
age. Direct adjustment
of vital statistics rates involves application of existing
rates (age-, race-, or sex-specific) to a standard population
to arrive at the theoretical number of events that would
occur in the standard population, at the rates prevailing
in the actual population. These events are then divided by the total number
of persons in the standard population to arrive at an adjusted
rate. Adjusted rates are index numbers and cannot be compared
to crude or other actual rates.
The use of adjusted rates is limited to comparison
with other adjusted rates, based on the same standard population.
The standard population used in this report is the
United States 2000 standard million, derived from the projection
of counts from the 2000 decennial census. Reports in this series prior to 1999 used the
US 1940 standard million for age-adjustment.
The definition of rates
and ratios used in this report follows.
It should be noted that alternative forms exist for
some of these statistics.
Some other states and the federal government may employ
different formulae for the computation of selected rates.
· Crude
Birth Rate: the number of resident live births per 1,000
population.
· General
Fertility Rate: the
number of resident live births per 1,000 females aged 15-44
years.
· Total
Fertility Rate: age-specific
birth rates of women in five-year age groups multiplied by
five and summed to form a total for all ages.
This rate indicates the number of children a cohort
of 1,000 women would bear if they experienced the existing
age-specific birth rates throughout their childbearing years.
· Age-Specific
Birth Rate: the number of resident live births to females
in a specific age group per 1,000 females in the age group.
· Crude
Death Rate: the
number of resident deaths per 100,000 population.
· Age-Adjusted
Death Rate: Direct
Method-the elimination of the effect of age on the crude death
rates for purposes of comparison with other rates by applying
actual age-specific rates to a standard population.
The resulting death rate in the standard population
is age-adjusted and can be compared to other death rates age-adjusted
to the same standard population.
· Cause-Specific
Death Rate: the
number of resident deaths from a specific cause per 100,000
population.
· Infant
Death Rate: the number of resident deaths under one year
of age per 1,000 population. (Note: The infant death rate is not presented in this report.)
· Infant
Mortality Rate: the
number of resident deaths under one year
of age in a given year per 1,000 births in the same year.
· Neonatal
Death Rate: the number of resident infant deaths within the
first 27 days of life per 1,000 live births.
· Postneonatal
Death Rate: the
number of resident infant deaths from 28 days to one year
of life per 1,000 live births.
· Fetal
Mortality Rate: the number of resident fetal deaths of 20 or
more weeks gestation per 1,000 resident live births plus fetal
deaths of 20 or more weeks of gestation.
· Marriage
Rate: the number of
marriage certificates issued in an area per 1,000 population.
· Divorce
Rate: the number of divorces
occurring in an area per 1,000 population.
Caution
should be exercised in the interpretation of rates and ratios
based on small numbers. Chance variations in the number of vital events
occurring in sparsely populated areas can cause rates to fluctuate
widely over time. In
accordance with National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
standards, percentages or rates based on fewer than 20 cases
are considered unreliable for analysis purposes.
Therefore, these percentages and rates are not displayed
and are indicated by ** in the appropriate cell.
For purposes of analyzing vital statistics rates for
small areas, calculation of three- or five-year average rates
and other statistical methodologies for analyzing small numbers
may provide more meaningful measures.
The cause-of-death rankings
found in this report are based on distinct causes of death
from the list of 31 cause groups and two residual categories
employed in the cause-of-death distributions by race-sex groups
and age and by county in the report.
This list is derived from the NCHS List of 113 Selected
Causes of Death (Kochanek, 2004) and modified for use in New
Jersey.
The cause-of-death ranking
of infant and fetal deaths is based on the NCHS List of 130
Selected Causes of Infant Death (Kochanek, 2004 ).
A
race group (White, Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Chinese,
Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino, Asian Indian, Korean, Samoan,
Vietnamese, Guamian, other Asian/Pacific Islander, other race,
and an unknown race category) and an ethnicity (Non-Hispanic,
Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, other
Hispanic, and an unknown ethnicity category) are reported
for each individual for whom a birth, death, or fetal death
record is filed. The
race and ethnicity of an infant are not reported on the birth
or fetal death certificate and are classified for statistical
purposes as the race and ethnicity of the mother.
Race/ethnicity designations
used in the birth chapter of this report are white (non-Hispanic),
black (non-Hispanic), Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic),
and other (non-Hispanic) races.
The Hispanic category includes persons of Mexican,
Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central/South American, or other Hispanic
ethnicity, regardless of race. The Asian/Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) category
includes persons of Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, Filipino,
Asian Indian, Korean, Samoan, Vietnamese, Guamian, and other
Asian and Pacific Islander descent who were not reported as
Hispanic. The other
(non-Hispanic) race category includes all race groups other
than white, black, and Asian/Pacific Islander who were not
reported as Hispanic.
Race and ethnicity classifications
are based on self-reports, or in the case of death records,
on reports from respondents, usually a family member, or from
persons responsible for preparing the death certificates.
Maternal race and ethnicity reporting on birth and fetal death
certificates has been found to be virtually complete, therefore
birth, infant death, and fetal death data for Asian/Pacific
Islanders and Hispanics mother are presented. However, race reporting for races other than
white and black and reporting of Hispanic ethnicity on death
certificates is incomplete; therefore, data presented in the
body of the death chapter are only given for white and black
races, regardless of ethnicity. Persons who are identified as Hispanic have
been included in the analysis of mortality data by race based
on the race reported on the decedent's death certificate
in Tables M1-M42 and are reported
separately in Tables MH1-MH9.
Asians and Pacific Islanders are included in the other
race category in Tables M1-M42
and are reported separately in Tables
MA1-MA9.
Births
The birth chapter encompasses
births to New Jersey residents during the calendar year 2002. The birth certificate is the source document
for data included in the analysis.
New Jersey law requires that the attending physician,
midwife, or person acting as midwife file a certificate of
birth with the Local Registrar within five days of a birth
within the state. Statistics
on births to New Jersey residents which occurred in other
states are also included in this report.
The inclusion of these data is made possible through
the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program,
which encourages the exchange of information on vital events
between the states of occurrence and residence.
In January of 1996,
the New Jersey Department of Health began
a pilot test of its electronic birth certificate (EBC) in
four maternity hospitals in the state.
Upon successful completion of this test, the EBC was
systematically installed in other New Jersey birthing facilities
over the next two years. By
the end of 1998, all New Jersey birthing facilities were reporting
births to the State through the EBC system.
Future reports in this series will benefit from the
improved quality and timeliness of the data afforded by the
EBC, as well as the enhanced array of perinatal data provided
through this system.
The
format of the birth certificate was revised and expanded in
1989. The position
of items on the revised birth certificate led to considerable
confusion between the reporting of a mother's mailing address
and her residence address. In 1998, the Center for Health Statistics completed
a multi-year project involving the application of address
standardization software to convert mailing-label type information
so that birth records could be accurately assigned to geographic
areas. With the resolution of this problem, it is once
again possible to display data at the municipality level.
Deaths
The mortality information
contained in this report covers deaths of New Jersey residents
during the 2002 calendar year.
The report's source document is the death certificate. New Jersey law requires the prompt filing of
a death certificate by the proper authority, such as hospital
personnel, physicians, medical examiners, and funeral directors,
in the event of a death occurring in the state.
These certificates are submitted to the office of the
State Registrar, where they are recorded and filed permanently.
Statistics on deaths of New Jersey residents which
occurred in other states are obtained through participation
in the national Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.
The death data presented in this
report are for New Jersey residents.
All of the causes of
deaths included in this report are underlying causes, and
were coded by the National Center for Health Statistics' SuperMICAR
and ACME software in accordance with the International
Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health
Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), adapted for use in the United
States. Additional causes of death listed on the certificates,
including the immediate and intermediate causes, are not considered
in the analysis. The
inclusion of all listed causes of death (multiple causes of
death) could lead to somewhat different results.
Infant
Deaths
Infant
mortality data are presented from the linked infant death-birth
match file which has death certificates for infants matched
with their birth certificates. This file allows analysis of maternal characteristics
and newborn health information that is not on the death certificate. The number of infant deaths from the all ages death file differs slightly from the number from the linked file due to additional quality control on the linked file.
It
is important to note that in reports in this series prior
to the 1998 report, when infant mortality was reported by
race, it was the race of the child as reported on the death
certificate. Beginning
with the 1999 report, the race of the mother on the birth certificate
will be used. The race and ethnicity of an infant are not
reported on the birth certificate and are classified for statistical
purposes as the race and ethnicity of the mother.
By analyzing infant deaths based on the mother's race
and ethnicity, the data will be comparable with the birth
data used for denominators in calculating infant mortality
rates. This also allows
the analysis of infant deaths by Hispanic ethnicity which
was not done prior to the 1998 data year due to poor ethnicity
reporting on the death certificate.
Fetal
Deaths
Fetal deaths occurring
after the completion of 20 or more weeks of gestation are
required to be reported to the State Registrar by New Jersey
law. Induced abortions of 20 weeks or more gestation
are encompassed by this requirement, but are not included
in the fetal death count.
Fetal death figures presented in this report, therefore,
include only spontaneous fetal deaths (also called spontaneous abortions or stillbirths) beyond 19 weeks of gestation.
Fetal deaths of unknown or unstated gestational age
are also included. Only
fetal deaths occurring to females who were New Jersey residents
are included.
Marriages
and Divorces
Information
on marriages in this report was obtained from marriage certificates
issued in New Jersey. Marriage
certificates are filed with the State Registrar. Divorce and annulment statistics were provided
by the New Jersey Judiciary, Administrative Office of the Courts, Family
Practice Division, Research and Statistics Section. Marriages
are recorded by the place of issuance of the certificate and
divorces and annulments are recorded by place of judgment.
Since no mechanism for interstate exchange of resident
marriage and divorce data exists, marriages, divorces, and
annulments of New Jersey residents which occur outside of
the state are not included in this report, while marriages
and divorces of out-of-state residents occurring in New Jersey
are included.
Births, Deaths, Fetal Deaths,
and Marriages
The birth, death, fetal
death, and marriage data presented in this report were generated
from data files available at the time of preparation of the
respective chapters. Any
data pertaining to a vital event for which a certificate was
filed after that time or relating to corrections or revisions
made since the data were processed for this report are not
included. Vital events
computer files are periodically updated by Office of Vital
Statistics and Center for Health Statistics staff based on
correction reports received from local registrars and from
data quality control analyses conducted by the Center
for Health Statistics. This
report incorporates data from the most recently updated files. Thus, 2002 data presented in future reports
of vital events may differ slightly from numbers presented
in this report.
Population
Population estimates presented in this
report and used to calculate various rates were derived from
the “Bridged-race Vintage 2002 postcensal population estimates” file prepared by the National Center for Health Statistics
(NCHS)
in collaboration with the U.S.
Bureau of the Census.
These estimates result from bridging
the 31 race categories used in the 2000 Census, as specified
in the 1997 federal OMB
standards for the collection of data on race and ethnicity,
to the four race categories specified under the 1977 standards.
Many data systems, such as vital statistics, are continuing
to use the 1977 standards during the transition to full implementation
of the 1997 standards. Estimates were developed for each state and
its counties by age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, and
sex categories. The
current set of estimates presented in this report has not
been rounded. However, it should not be presumed that they
have the degree of accuracy which such precise figures might
imply. NCHS does not consider these estimates to be
accurate for each individual cell and recommends aggregating
the individual cells to larger groups when the data are used
for purposes of analysis. Estimates are distributed by five-year age groups,
sex, four race groups (White, Black, American Indian and Alaska
Native, and Asian and Pacific Islander), and Hispanic ethnicity
for the state and each county (Tables
P1-P22). Hispanics may be of any race and are already
included in the race groups in each table.
Population estimates are given for municipalities with
40,000 or more residents in 2002 (Table
P23). These are the municipalities listed in the birth
and death chapters of this report.
The reporting of births
and deaths is considered to be essentially complete. According to NCHS, more than 99 percent of births
and deaths are registered.
Reporting of fetal deaths is believed to be somewhat
less complete. For later periods of gestation, however, fetal
death reporting is thought to be more complete (NCHS, 1994). The completeness of reporting by residence is
dependent on the effective functioning of the interstate data
exchange program for certificates which is fostered and encouraged
by NCHS. Research has shown that there is some degree
of slippage in receiving information on all births and deaths
of New Jersey residents occurring in other states.
However, the number of missing events is thought to
be small, relative to the overall number of events.
The quality of the birth,
death, and fetal death data included in this report is a function
of the accuracy and completeness of the information recorded
on the respective certificates and of the quality control
procedures employed in the coding and keying processes.
A query program in which the individual(s) responsible
for completing the certificate is questioned about missing
or conflicting information is carried out by staff of the
Office of Vital Statistics of the New Jersey Department of Health.
This process is augmented by the data quality control
analyses performed by the Center for Health Statistics using
all of the NCHS edit criteria.
In order to participate
in the national Vital Statistics Cooperative Program, states
had to achieve an error rate of two percent or less on each
certificate item for three consecutive months.
The error rates relate to both coding and data entry
errors. New Jersey
has met the error tolerance requirements for the cooperative
program. After satisfying
initial requirements, a monthly sample of records is used
to determine that the error rate on each birth certificate
item is approximately four percent or less and is no more
than two percent for each death certificate item other than
the medical cause-of-death information.
Due to the complexity of the coding system, cause-of-death
coding has a five percent error tolerance level set by NCHS.
Multiple cause-of-death coding of New Jersey death
records for 2002 was performed by NCHS staff.
For public health planning
and policy determination, the most useful population to study
is usually the resident population of an area.
In the case of births, deaths, and fetal deaths, the
existence of resident certificate exchange agreements among
the registration areas in the country permits analysis of
resident birth and death statistics. In this report, the data presented for births,
deaths, and fetal deaths represent vital events of the resident
population. Marriage
and divorce statistics in this report represent vital events
which occurred in New Jersey, regardless of the state of residence
of the individuals involved.
Allocation of vital
events by place of residence within the state is sometimes
difficult because classification depends on the statement
of the usual place of residence provided by the informant
at the time the certificate is completed. For a variety of reasons, the information given
may be incorrectly recorded.
A common source of error is the confusion of mailing
address with residence address. A major project to correctly allocate New Jersey
births by municipality of mother's residence has been completed. Since the 1998 report in this series, selected birth data has
been presented for all municipalities with over 40,000 residents. The degree to which incorrect information on
municipality of residence has been recorded on death certificates
is not precisely known, but this issue is generally a problem
only for certain minor civil divisions.
As of 2002, the decedent's address was not available on the electronic file of death certificates, consequently deaths could not be correctly allocated in the manner in which births have been. Therefore, death data are only presented for municipalities
with over 40,000 residents and which are known to have a relatively
low level of uncertainty in allocation of municipality.
Return to Health Statistics 2002
Index
