Evaluation of the Sensitivity and Accuracy of Birth Defects Indicators on the 2003 Revision of the U.S. Birth Certificate: Has Data Quality Improved?

Efforts to restrict the 2003 revision of the birth certificate to defects identifiable at birth have not improved the likelihood that birth certificates will identify infants born with those defects. We do not recommend the use of birth certificates as a source of birth defects data without case verification strategies.