DATA STORY
Preterm birth disparities
Disparities by race-ethnicity, type of insurance, access to care, and zip code
Maternal, Child, and Adolescent HealthPreterm birth disparities by 3-year period
Over the past 10 years, in San Francisco, risk of preterm birth differed significantly by:
Race-ethnicity: Asian, Black or African American, and Latino/a pregnant people experienced significantly more preterm births than White pregnant people.
Insurance: The gap in preterm birth rates between public and private insurance got significantly wider.
Access to services: Local rates of preterm birth vary significantly by hospital, housing, access to adequate prenatal care, and food program participation.
Zip code: 3-year preterm birth rates vary two-fold across San Francisco zip codes from 5.6 in 94127 to 11.0 in 94102.
Select 'Preterm' or 'Very preterm' to see data for births before 37 weeks or births before 32 weeks of pregnancy. The bar chart shows the percentage of babies born preterm by 3-year period and population group. Use the check boxes on the left of the bar chart to select one or more population group(s).
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Data notes and sources
Data source:
- California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Vital Record Business Information System (VRBIS). VRBIS data include one birth certificate record for each and every baby born in California.
- Data were analyzed by the San Francisco (SF) Department of Public Health Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Epidemiology Section.
Data notes:
- Preterm birth is defined as live birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Very preterm birth is live birth before 32 weeks of pregnancy.
- We count preterm births experienced by San Francisco residents between January 1 and December 31 of each year.
Data limitations:
- Data are not shown if the number of preterm births in the group is less than 20 to protect the privacy of individual people in the group. For small groups, please see the days of pregnancy lost because of preterm birth for the group.
- The total numbers shown here may undercount the true numbers, because we do not count preterm births that happened outside of California, in other states or countries.
- We do not count babies delivered in San Francisco by people who are not San Francisco residents.
Data will shown if at least 20 preterm births happened for the selected group(s) in the 3-year period. For groups with fewer preterm births but at least 10 births, total, in the period, see the total days of pregnancy lost.
Use the confidence intervals to find out if two rates differ significantly. Rates differ significantly if their confidence intervals do not overlap.
Map of 5-year preterm birth rates by population group
This map shows 5-year preterm birth rates for the selected population group.
Navigating dashboards with a keyboard
- Control + Enter to enter the dashboard
- Tab or Arrow to move between visuals
- Control + Right arrow to enter a visual or filter
- Escape to exit a visual, filter or dashboard
Navigating within a visual or filter
- Tab or Arrow to move around a table or visual
- Enter to select within a table or visual
- Spacebar to select or deselect a filter
Data notes and sources
Data source:
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Vital Record Business Information System (VRBIS). VRBIS data include one birth certificate record for each and every baby born in California.
Data were analyzed by the San Francisco (SF) Department of Public Health Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Epidemiology Section.
Data notes:
Abbreviations: CPMC: California Pacific Medical Center; UCSF: University of California San Francisco; ZSFG: Zuckerberg San Francisco General.
Race and ethnicity were self-reported by the parent(s) and grouped by the California Department of Public Health, which separates multi-race Hispanic and single race Hispanic groups.
Quality of prenatal care was checked using the Kotelchuck index
The birth record notes if the birthing parent was ever diagnosed by a doctor with high blood pressure before or during pregnancy and if they were ever diagnosed with diabetes before or during pregnancy.
Data limitations:
Data are not shown if the number of preterm births in the group is less than 20 to protect the privacy of individual people in the group. For small groups, please see the days of pregnancy lost because of preterm birth for the group.
The numbers shown here may undercount the true number of preterm births because we did not count preterm births delivered by San Francisco residents outside of California, in other states or countries. The birth record data may be incomplete because of health conditions that were not diagnosed.
We do not count babies delivered in San Francisco by people who are not San Francisco residents.
Use the filter to select a population group. Use the confidence intervals to check if two zip codes have significantly different 5-year preterm birth rates. Two rates are significantly different if their confidence intervals do not overlap.
More information
See linked pages about preterm birth in San Francisco