LINCOLN, Neb. — The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has announced the Provisional Vital Statistics Birth Dashboard. Vital statistics data are fundamental to public health assessment and planning processes correlating with the overall health of the population.
In September 2024, DHHS released an initial Vital Statistics Birth Dashboard, which includes finalized annual birth data between the years 2005-2023 for Nebraska resident births. DHHS recently released an additional data resource called the Provisional Birth Dashboard, which includes non-finalized birth data for Nebraska resident births in 2024. This non-finalized birth data provides Nebraskans, communities, hospitals, and health care providers with more timely data on trends around the state and in their communities.
The main difference between these two dashboards is that the initial Vital Statistics Birth Dashboard is updated annually with finalized data, meaning the data will not change, while the Provisional Birth Dashboard will be updated quarterly with the previous quarter's data. Due to provisional data not being finalized at the time of release, data could change with each subsequent update until the data is finalized.
“Timely access to essential birth data is vital for our communities' health and well-being and empowers informed data-driven decisions to improve public health planning and outcomes in our communities,” said Charity Menefee, DHHS Public Health Director. “We are excited to launch this tool to help support healthier families and stronger communities.”
The dashboard allows results to be presented through an overall summary, characteristics of the mother (age, race/ethnicity, education, and marital status), characteristics of pregnancy (parity, plurality, smoking status, pre-pregnancy BMI, hypertension, diabetes, previous preterm delivery, adequacy of prenatal care, and trimester of prenatal care), and characteristics of birth (birth weight, breastfeeding at discharge, delivery method, delivery payment source, and gestational age). Results are presented by demographic (age, race/ethnicity, education, and marital status) and geographic (state, local health department, and urban/rural) categories. Users can explore data in charts, tables, and maps.
To protect the privacy and security of the data presented within the dashboard, the number of cases or records are suppressed using the following rules: (1) when the count is 1-5, or (2) if only one category is suppressed the next lowest category is also suppressed in instances where the count could be identified through subtraction.
DHHS makes its best efforts to ensure the accuracy of all data collected, stored, analyzed, and reported from its databases. The accuracy and completeness of these records depend on the reporting parties, such as hospitals. Provisional data are data that have not undergone the full data processing and quality activities preparing it to be a final data product. Examples can include a typo in the zip code or if fields such as birth weight or educational background were missing. These minor typos or missing information are generally fixed during the processing and data quality steps DHHS undergoes to ensure accurate information. Since data collection, submission, and quality activities are ongoing, provisional data should be used with caution. By using this dashboard, users acknowledge the above limitations, and that the data are subject to continuous updating.
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