Descriptive Epidemiology and Vital Statistics

Chapter 4: Descriptive Epidemiology activity 20 points

Scenario: The Clarksville, Tennessee Town Council believes the city has a serious teenage pregnancy problem. To explore this hypothesis the council wants to know how many babies were born to teenagers during 2008. Data was collected from the National Institute of Health website for select counties in Tennessee. Your task is to: create a case definition of a teenage mother, calculate teenage birth rates per 1,000 from the raw data for the state of Tennessee and select counties, and interpret the rates. Also, compare the rates for teenage pregnancy between the United States and the state of Tennessee. The national teen pregnancy rate per 1,000 has been calculated for you. Conclude if Tennessee has a serious teenage pregnancy problem from your analysis of the data. Make recommendations to the Town Council for addressing teen pregnancy in Montgomery County. Type up your report and submit it with the pregnancy rates in the appropriate dropbox.

Demographic Characteristics of Mother by State/County – 2008

Birth rate Total Live Births per 1,000 State/County Population Age of Mother Tennessee 1591234 Total Births 85560 198,378 Under 15 150 193,604 15-19 11157 Blount County,TN 52,224 Total 1388 3,666 Under 15 2 3,503 15-19 180 Davidson County,TN 280,835 Total 10104 17,967 Under 15 14 18,853 15-19 1034 Hamilton County,TN 143,000 Total 4331 10,148 Under 15 3 10,866 15-19 537 Knox County,TN 186,481 Total 5495 12,227 Under 15 7 13,734 15-19 563 Montgomery County, TN 81,862 Total 2841 6,509 Under 15 4 6,798 15-19 263 United States 15-19 444,899 42.5 per 1,000 42.5 per 1,000 is the US teen pregnancy birth rate for the age category 15-19.

You must calculate the rates for the state of Tennessee and select counties for the total population and for the age categories, under 15 and 15-19.