On the following pages, birth defects surveillance data are presented for 35 states. In this issue, state surveillance programs were requested to provide birth defects data for the time period January 1, 1997 through December 31, 2001. The 45 specific birth defects are detailed in Appendix A on page 772. Programs were asked to identify the occurrence of each specific defect for all live births, stillbirths and terminations (if collected), and data submitted were to be stratified by racial/ethnic group and, for certain defects (trisomy 13, 18 and 21), by maternal age. To calculate rates, programs were asked to provide data on the number of live births for each calendar year requested.
An attempt was made to standardize both the request and presentation of state surveillance data, however, differences in the way programs collect and report birth defects data are listed in the footnotes in the accompanying tables and may be referenced in the program directories on pages 609 -676. Along with the inability of some programs to provide data for each of the years included in the report, others varied in their ability to report counts and rates by race/ethnicity, and still others were unable either to provide data for each specific defect requested due to differences in the coding systems (i.e., ICD-9-CM vs. CDC/BPA) used to classify birth defects.
Although previous reports have shown trends or annual rates of certain conditions such as, neural tube defects and fetal alcohol syndrome, this report does not highlight a specific condition. For a more detailed presentation of other birth defects, the reader is encouraged to visit the NBDPN web site at www.nbdpn.org.