The “Orange County Geographic Health Profile: Birth Indicators (2000-2010)” report that summarizes birth outcomes by city and compares Orange County rates to state and national benchmarks.
Compared to the U.S. and the state of California, Orange County has better outcomes for six important measures, including pre-term birth, low birth weight, births to teens, prenatal care, breastfeeding initiation, and infant mortality. In addition, following a methodology used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank geographic health indicators, HCA developed a composite measure to compare birth outcomes for local cities. Every Orange County city scored above the Healthy People 2020 goals and the California and national averages.
These successes notwithstanding, it is important for providers and stakeholders to remain vigilant in order to maintain and improve on these birth outcomes. As described in this report, significant disparities exist across different race/ethnic groups and across different cities in the county.
