Data Source

Birth Defects Epidemiology & Surveillance (BDES)

Data Description

Birth defects data are from the Texas Birth Defects Registry, which uses active surveillance to collect information about infants and fetuses with birth defects born to women residing in Texas. Data for years prior to 1999 are not included here, but can be obtained by contacting the Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch.

Data are presented for selected birth defect categories, which now include severe microcephaly, plus a category labeled "infants and fetuses with regular reportable birth defects." Severe microcephaly is defined as a diagnosis of microcephaly, small head, or small brain, plus a head circumference measurement at birth that is less than the 3rd percentile for sex and gestational age. Birth defects are grouped by body system. A glossary of birth defect terms provides more information about particular defects.

Using Statewide, Border or Regional data, you can create tables of birth defects by year, maternal age group, maternal race-ethnicity, and infant sex. Additionally, these data tables can be restricted to a particular age group, race-ethnic group, and sex. For County data, tables of birth defects can be produced by year and geographic area only, to protect confidentiality.

Measure Information

• It is not meaningful to sum individual birth defect categories to obtain the total number of children with birth defects, for two reasons. First, infants and fetuses often have more than one birth defect, and when that happens, they are counted for each birth defect they have. Second, the birth defect categories do not represent all types of birth defects monitored. For a total, select "Total: infants and fetuses with any monitored birth defect".
• In all modules, available statistics include the number of cases, the birth prevalence expressed as the number of cases per 10,000 live births, and the 95% confidence interval for the birth prevalence. A case is an infant or fetus with the specified birth defect.
• The number of cases and the birth prevalence for the birth defect hypospadias are reported for males only.

Additional Information

Birth Defects website

Glossary of birth defect terms

If you need information about birth defects that is not available here, please contact the Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch at 512-776-7232 or birthdefects@dshs.texas.gov. Additional information can also be found on the Birth Defects website.