Birth Defects Data and Publications
The Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch (BDESB) analyzes and maintains data collected in the Texas Birth Defects Registry (TBDR) in order to identify and describe the patterns of birth defects occurring among children in Texas. This work enables the following public health activities:
- Monitoring changes in prevalence rates over time, detecting increases that may show changes in maternal and child health, environmental conditions, and other factors.
- Generating publicly available statistical data to aid in research, inform policy decisions, evaluate health care systems, and help plan improvements to delivery of services.
- Providing statistical summaries and tables upon request to the public, researchers, health care providers, policy makers, local health departments, and others.
- Investigating reports of unusual “clusters” of birth defects; see our Birth Defect Clusters page for additional information.
- Performing education and outreach activities for families of children with birth defects.
Statistical Data
Texas Birth Defects Registry (TBDR) Annual Report — Our Annual Report includes the number of cases and birth prevalence for selected birth defects broken down by delivery year, maternal age, maternal race/ethnicity, infant/fetal sex, public health region, and percentage by pregnancy outcome.
Birth Defects in Texas Dashboard — Located on the DSHS Texas Health Data website, this collection of interactive data visualizations focuses on the most recent 5 years of TBDR data available, containing prevalence and case data for selected birth defects.
Data Requests
Publications
- Texas Birth Defects Monitor: An Annual Data and Research Update
- Published Research Using TBDR Data
- Connecting Children with Spina Bifida and Encephalocele to Health and Social Services
- Connecting Children with Critical Congenital Heart Defects to Social Services and Identifying Barriers to Accessing Healthcare