Schuyler County residents have excellent quality of life and 1 more...
Percentage of live births with low birthweight (< 2,500 grams)
Current Value
5%
Definition
"Percentage of live births with low birthweight (< 2,500 grams). The 2024 Annual Data Release used data from 2016-2022 for this measure
Low Birthweight can be due to preterm births (<37 weeks of gestation) and intrauterine growth restrictions associated with increased infant morbidity and mortality risks. Factors that increase the likelihood of preterm births include multiple births, pre-eclampsia, and infections such as chorioamnionitis, bacterial vaginosis, and sepsis. Barriers to proper nutrition and adequate prenatal care can result in slowed intrauterine growth. Stress and exposure to pollution are also negatively associated with intrauterine growth. Substance misuse during pregnancy also can lead to low birthweight.
Low birth weight is a significant public health indicator that can be used to assess maternal health, nutrition, healthcare delivery, and poverty. Infants born with low birthweight have approximately 20 times greater chance of dying than those with normal birthweight. Infants who survive may face adverse health outcomes such as decreased growth, lower IQ, impaired language development, and chronic conditions (e.g., obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease) during adulthood."
Story Behind the Curve
Partners
What Works
Strategy
Data Sources and Measure Methods
The 2025 Annual Data Release Years of data used: 2017-2023
Data Source
"National Center for Health Statistics - Natality files: Data on deaths and births were provided by NCHS and drawn from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). These data are submitted to the NVSS by the vital registration systems operated in the jurisdictions legally responsible for registering vital events (i.e., births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and fetal deaths). County Health Rankings (CHR) requested this data for the first time for the 2018 Rankings. This was done because of the discontinuation of the Health Indicators Warehouse. This change also allows additional analyses for state and national reports which, if obtained from CDC WONDER, would have numerous missing counties. Counties can find the same data from CDC WONDER. However, CHR uses the raw data files. CDC WONDER does not report data for all counties per their missing data criteria."
Measure Methods
-
"Low Birthweight is a percentage: Low Birthweight is the percentage of live births where the infant weighed less than 2,500 grams (approximately 5 lbs., 8 oz.)."
-
"Births are counted in the mother's county of residence: Births are counted in the county corresponding to the mother’s address on the child’s birth certificate, regardless of where the child was born."
-
"Some data are suppressed: A missing value is reported for counties with fewer than 10 low birthweight births in the time frame."
-
"Numerator: The numerator is the number of live births for which the infant weighed less than 2,500 grams (approximately 5 lbs., 8 oz.) over seven years."
-
"Denominator: The denominator is the total number of live births for which weight was recorded over seven years."
-
:Can This Measure Be Used to Track Progress? This measure can be used to track progress with some caveats. It is important to note that the estimate provided in the County Health Rankings is a 7-year average. However, in most counties, obtaining single-year estimates from the resource included below is relatively simple."
Source: Low Birth Weight | County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
References
-
Hughes, M. M., Black, R. E. & Katz, J. (2017). 2500-g Low birth weight cutoff: History and implications for future research and policy. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 21, 283–289 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-2131-9
-
Osterman, M. J. K., Hamilton, B. E., Martin, J. A., Driscoll, A. K., & Valenzuela, C. P. (2022). Births: Final data for 2020. National Vital Statistics Reports, 70(17). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-17.pdf
-
Cutland, C. L., Lackritz, E. M., Mallett-Moore, T., Bardají, A., Chandrasekaran, R., Lahariya, C., Nisar, M. I., Tapia, M. D., Pathirana, J., Kochhar, S., Muñoz, F. M., & Brighton Collaboration Low Birth Weight Working Group. (2017). Low birth weight: Case definition & guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation of maternal immunization safety data. Vaccine, 35(48 Pt A), 6492–6500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.01.049
-
UNICEF. (2019, May). Low birthweight. Accessed February 24, 2022. https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/low-birthweight/
-
Forray A. (2016). Substance use during pregnancy. F1000Research, 5, F1000 Faculty Rev-887. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7645.1
Clear Impact Suite is an easy-to-use, web-based software platform that helps your staff collaborate with external stakeholders and community partners by utilizing the combination of data collection, performance reporting, and program planning.