Birth Study Shows Big Population Shift

SANTA ANA —  The birthrate among Latinos in Orange County began outpacing that of whites in 1992, and the overall rate for girls 10 to 14 years old outstripped the nation’s tenfold.

Those are among the findings of a study to be released today by the Orange County Health Care Agency to help it plan for the future. “Trends in Birth Outcomes: Orange County (1984-1993)” paints a rapidly changing demographic scene in which the Latino population is catching up with the white majority through a higher birthrate, particularly among the young.

During the period studied, the county’s Latino population also posted lower rates of prenatal care in the first trimester, slightly higher rates of low birth weight and premature births, and a higher proportion of births to unmarried mothers compared with whites, the study said.

Though the data are 4 years old, county officials and demographers said, the study offers the first broad view of a wide population shift that has consequences for health care, education, criminal justice and the business sector.

“As times are changing, we have to know where we’re going,” said Marianne E. Maxwell, director of the Health Care Agency’s Office of Policy Research and Planning, which released the report as part of a series examining health risks.

“We are looking toward future trends, and we are able to project a light out so the community as a whole can develop its planning.”

Between 1984 and 1993, there were 585 births to girls 10 to 14, and of those, 72% were to Latinas, the study found. The countywide birthrate for girls in that age group rose 175%, compared with increases of 37% for the state and 17% for the nation.

Those numbers came as no surprise to those who provide services to young mothers.

“We have one of the largest Latino populations in the state, and the Latino community has the highest teen birthrate,” said Cynthia Scheinberg, executive director for the Orange-based Coalition for Children, Adolescents and Parents. The nonprofit organization conducts sex education programs, evaluates at-risk youth and refers pregnant teens to the appropriate services.

Just Monday, Scheinberg said, her office received four calls seeking referrals for pregnant 14-year-olds in northern and central Orange County. Their ethnicity was unknown.

“We never got four calls in one day before about that age group,” she said. “Kids have a lot of pressure on them right now--pressure to have sex, pressure as a result of home situations. . . . Limited life options are a critical component.”

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Scheinberg pointed out that the study reflects births, not all pregnancies. White youth tend to end pregnancies with abortion more often than Latinas, who choose two-thirds of the time to carry their babies to term, she said.

All told, the 10-year study found, white births outnumbered those to other racial or ethnic groups. However, in 1992, the trend began to shift, with Latino births exceeding those of whites. For 1993, Latino births were 23,247, compared with 21,253 white births.

Health Care Agency researcher Zan Steiner, who wrote the report, said the county’s most recent statistics, for 1994, indicate that the trend is continuing: Of 49,880 total births in 1994, 19,761 were white, and 23,261 were Latino.

“The number of Hispanic births is about the same in 1994 as 1993, but the number of white births is declining,” she said.

While the overall rates of prenatal care in Orange County were good compared with national figures, Latinos and Asians fared worse than other ethnic groups, the study found. While 93% of whites and 80% of blacks received prenatal care in 1993, only 70% of Asians and 69% of Latinos did so.

“If there are more Hispanic births than white, we will see prenatal care go down in the county unless there is some change in the way Hispanics use prenatal care,” Steiner said.

Why Latinos seek prenatal care at a lower rate is unclear, she said.

Despite the high access to prenatal care for blacks, the study said, the percentage of low-birth-weight babies born to African Americans was higher than any other group: 10% in 1993, compared with 6% for Asians and 5% for whites and Latinos.

The study also showed that 41% of black mothers were unmarried, compared with 39% of Latinas and 16% of whites. Steiner noted that, because the county’s black population is small, the statistics for that group are likely to be less meaningful. However, they are consistent with national figures, she said.

The study also looked at infant mortality rates, and educational attainment and previous pregnancies of mothers.

The issue of teen pregnancy in Orange County was underscored last fall after revelations that social services officials and the juvenile court had allowed about 15 pregnant adolescent girls to marry, or resume living with, the adult males who had impregnated them, rather than push for prosecution of the men under child abuse or statutory rape laws.

County social workers were told early this year to stop recommending the marriages after an agency task force investigated the practice. Fourteen of the 15 girls were Latina.

The county study, Scheinberg said, does little to help the community address the issue of teen pregnancy because the aging data make it nearly impossible for service providers to gauge what is and is not working.

For example, an educational program called “Education Now and Babies Later” ran from 1991 through 1993 in 11 Orange County school districts, Scheinberg said. But the delay in data makes it difficult to know whether it was effective, and it has already been killed for lack of funding.

“Retrospectively, we’re seeing that something we did in 1990 might have been effective,” she said. “We wonder, ‘What might that have been?’ It’s a little bit late from the planning perspective.”

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Though the county data are old, demographic studies that span a decade are “extremely useful,” said William Gayk, director of the Center for Demographic Research at Cal State Fullerton.

“This kind of information is very important in the development of health programs,” he said. “It’s a key in helping to understand, right now, the major component of population growth in Orange County, because most of our growth is occurring as a result of natural increase.

“There are differences in birthrates, and it plays heavy in terms of what the future population will look like.”

Dr. Hugh F. Stallworth, the county’s director of public health, said his agency has long recognized that family planning is one of its most important programs. While the agency does not target services by ethnicity, Stallworth said, the “majority of women who seek the county’s family planning services are Latino.”

The county also does outreach in the Latino community to educate people about available family planning services, he said.

“I don’t think the study will change our policy,” he said. “It’ll make us more aware that we have a lot of work to do.”

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Latino Births Increasing

A 10-year study revealed that the number of Latino births in Orange County more than doubled from the previous decade, while white births remained about the same. Of births to girls ages 10 to 14, the proportion of those to Latino mothers grew by 26%. A closer look at births countywide for 1984 through 1993:

Births by Ethnicity

Overall, the birthrate increased by about 50%:

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Ethnicity 1984 1993 % Increase White 21,128 21,253 1% Latino 9,104 23,247 155 Asian 3,197 5,485 71 Black 629 858 37 Total 34,058 50,843 49%

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Adolescent Mothers

Between 1984 and 1993, there were 585 births to girls 10 to 14. Black and Asian births were combined because of the low number of births to those groups. The ethnic breakdown:

1984

Latino: 58%

White: 23%

Asian-Black: 13%

1993

Latino: 84%

White: 12%

Asian-Black: 4%

Comparing Local Trend

Between 1984 and 1993, the Orange County birthrate for mothers 10 to 14 remained lower than the state and national rates but had increased the most over the 10-year period. Births per 1,000 girls:

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1984 1993 % Increase Orange County 0.4 1.1 175% California 1.1 1.5 37 United States 1.2 1.4 17

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Source: Orange County Health Care Agency