What does this
indicator measure?
This indicator reports the findings of The Right
Start, a joint project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation and
Child Trends, a research organization. Using data from the National
Center for Health Statistics, the report ranks the 50 largest
cities and all states based on best and worst performance on each
of the following eight measures:
-
Births to teens
-
Births to teens who were already
mothers
-
Births to unmarried women
-
Births to mothers with less than 12 years
of education
-
Births to mothers receiving late or no
prenatal care
-
Births to mothers who smoked during
pregnancy
-
Low-birthweight births (less than 5.5
pounds)
-
Preterm births (less than 37 weeks of
gestation)
In addition, this indicator also reports descriptive information
about births in the counties that comprise the Dallas MSA.
Specifically, the following statistics are reported:
- Total births
- Low-birthweight infants (less than 2,500 grams or 5
pounds, 9 ounces)
- Births to mothers 17 years of age and younger
- Onset of prenatal care within first trimester
Why is this indicator
important?
Facts about the
circumstances and conditions under which children are born have a
significant lifelong implication for the health and lives of
children. For example, there is empirical support for the notion
that children of mothers who receive little or no
prenatal care are significantly more likely to experience chronic
health problems than children of
mothers who received prenatal care. The Right
Start rankings are an adequate indicator of how the city
of Dallas ranks within the context of the largest 50 cities in the
country. However, these rankings provide no information about the
rest of the Dallas MSA. Annual reports (vital statistics) from the
Texas Department of State Health Services (formerly the Texas
Department of Health) are used to describe births in the Dallas
MSA.
How are we
doing?
According to the Texas
Department of State Health Services:- In 2002, Kaufman County had the highest proportion (8.9%) of
low weight births among the Dallas MSA counties. During the same
year, Rockwall County had the lowest proportion (5.9%) of low
weight births.
- In 2002, Henderson County had the highest proportion (7.2%) of
births to mothers less than 17 years of age among the Dallas MSA
counties. During the same year, Collin County had the lowest
proportion (1.5%) of births to mothers less than 17 years of
age.
- In 2002, Hunt County had the greatest proportion of expectant
mothers without prenatal care (31%) before the end of the first
trimester. During the same year, Rockwall County had the lowest
proportion of expectant mothers without prenatal care (11.4%)
before the end of the first trimester.
The rankings from The Right Start project indicate
that:
- Although the proportion of births to teenagers went down
between 2000 and 2001, the city of Dallas is still among the 15
cities with the highest proportion of births to teens.
- The city of Dallas ranks among the top five cities with the
highest proportion of births to teen mothers who already have
children.
- Among the nations largest cities, in 2000 and 2001, the city of
Dallas had the greatest proportion of births to mothers with
less than 12 years of education.
- The city of Dallas ranked 20th among the
top 50 cities in the percentage of low-birthweight babies (8.%)
born in 2001.
- Although the proportion of babies born
prematurely in Dallas has not changed significantly between 2000
and 2001, the city's rank dropped significantly from 31st to
26th place from 2000 to 2001.
- Overall, the city of Dallas ranked in the
bottom half among the top 50 cities in six of the eight key
indicators examined by The Right Start report.