Effect on mortality rates of the 1989 change in tabulating race.

Abstract

Effective with vital statistics data for 1989, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) made the following change in most of its tabulations of race for live births and fetal death; race for live births and fetal deaths are shown by race of mother rather than by race of child. As a result of the change in the tabulation by race of live births and fetal deaths, infant, fetal, perinatal, and maternal mortality rates by race in NCHS tabulations for 1989 are not comparable with those of previous years. To facilitate comparison with previous years' data and analysis of current patterns, key tabulations and text analysis in reports from NCHS for 1989 and 1990 data (l-3) show infant, fetal, perinatal, and maternal mortality data computed on the basis of live births and fetal deaths tabulated by both race of mother and race of child. This makes it possible to distinguish the effects of this change in tabulation from real changes in the data. Beginning with data for 1991, NCHS publications show most tabulations by race of mother only.