The Florida Birth Defects Registry (FBDR) uses passive surveillance methodology to identify infants with birth defects. The FBDR uses data from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Department of Health Regional Perinatal Intensive Care Centers, Children’s Medical Services , and Early Intervention Program/Early Steps, along with information from the Agency for Health Care Administration Inpatient Discharge Data and Ambulatory Hospital Data. If any of these identifies an infant with a birth defect before one year of age and the infant was born alive to a Florida resident, then the infant is part of the FBDR.

Not all defects are included in the FBDR and only defects that were identified in one of the above sources are included. Many infants have more than one birth defect; therefore you cannot obtain the total number of infants with birth defects by summing the numbers in the tables. For more information about the FBDR datasets please contact the FBDR (link to http://www.fbdr.org/2005/contacts.asp).