KDHE Home - News 1999 - News Release
Kansas
Department of Health & Environment
Bill Graves, Governor
Clyde D. Graeber, Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 17, 1999
Contact: Sharon Watson, 785-296-1531
Multiple Births Increase in Kansas
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment today reported the number of live births in multiple deliveries for Kansans climbed 22.1 percent between 1989 and 1998. The total in 1998, 1,081, included 1,015 twins, 59 triplets, and 7 born in other higher order multiple deliveries (table on page 2).
In 1998 the multiple birth rate (births per 1,000 live births) had grown 23.1 percent, from 1989. Over the same time period, the twin birth rate increased 19.4 percent, and the triplet birth rate rose 114.3 percent. There were no reported births of quadruplets or other higher order multiple births to Kansas residents from 1989-1993.
The 1998 rate of combined births in greater than twin deliveries shows an increase of 146.1 percent, which translates from 69.9 per 100,000 live births in 1989 to 102.1 per 100,000 in 1998. Put another way, one in every 581 births was a triplet or other higher level multiple in 1998, compared to one in every 1431 births in 1989.
The Kansas trend parallels increases nationally. Between 1980 and 1997 the National Center for Health Statistics reported a 52 percent increase in the number of twins and a 404 percent increase in the number of triplets and other higher order multiple births in the United States.
The trend toward greater numbers and higher rates of multiple births can be partially attributed to fertility enhancing therapies and the tendency in recent years of women to delay childbearing until later in life, when there is a greater likelihood of bearing children in multiple births. For Kansas residents in 1989, births to women 35 years of age or older comprised 7.2 percent of live births. In 1998 those births had risen to 11.4 percent of live births.
KDHE's Center for Health and Environmental Statistics compiled the data from summaries of birth records provided by delivering physicians to the Office of Vital Statistics. The Center assesses public health trends based on births and deaths reported.
A copy of the study is available at the KDHE web site, http://www.kdheks.gov/ches/ or by calling 785-296-8627.
| Multiple Births | ||||||||
| Kansas, 1989-1998 | ||||||||
| Number of | Higher Order | Total | ||||||
| Number of | Twin | Number of | Triplet | Other | Multiple** | Number of | Multiple | |
| Year | Twins | Birth Rates* | Triplets | Birth Rates* | Multiples | Birth Rates*** | Multiples | Birth Rates* |
| 1989 | 858 | 22.2 | 27 | 0.7 | - | 69.9 | 885 | 22.9 |
| 1990 | 881 | 22.7 | 15 | 0.4 | - | 38.6 | 896 | 23.1 |
| 1991 | 828 | 22.0 | 21 | 0.6 | - | 55.8 | 849 | 22.6 |
| 1992 | 898 | 23.7 | 43 | 1.1 | - | 113.6 | 941 | 24.9 |
| 1993 | 863 | 23.1 | 45 | 1.2 | - | 120.7 | 908 | 24.4 |
| 1994 | 847 | 22.7 | 40 | 1.1 | 5 | 120.7 | 892 | 23.9 |
| 1995 | 895 | 24.1 | 38 | 1.0 | 5 | 115.9 | 938 | 25.3 |
| 1996 | 978 | 26.8 | 49 | 1.3 | 8 | 156.1 | 1035 | 28.3 |
| 1997 | 1016 | 27.3 | 42 | 1.1 | 2 | 118.3 | 1060 | 28.5 |
| 1998 | 1015 | 26.5 | 59 | 1.5 | 7 | 172.0 | 1081 | 28.2 |
Residence data
*Twin, Triplet, and Multiple birth rates are per 1,000 live births
**Higher order multiple births include triplets, quadruplets, etc.
***Higher order multiple birth rates are per 100,000 live births
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