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This study compared the occurrence of child maltreatment in military and nonmilitary populations Data came from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. All cases of child maltreatment substantiated from January 1. 2000 through December 31, 2(X)2, in the state of Texas were analyzed. The rate of occurrence of substantiated maltreatment was lower for children in military families compared with children in nonmilitary families (5.05 vs. 7.89 per 1000 person-year). A greater proportion of caretakers of children in nonmilitary families compared with military families reportedly had financial problems 118.7% vs. 5.2%) and received public assistance (28.2% vs. 8.9%). The rate of occurrence of substantiated child maltreatment appears to be lower in military than nonmilitary families. The proportion of families with financial problems and public assistance is lower in military than nonmilitary families. suggesting that these factors may increase stress in families and the risk of maltreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Our population-based case–control study of air quality and birth defects in Texas relied on the geocoding of maternal residence from vital records for the assignment of air pollution exposures during early pregnancy. We attempted to geocode the maternal addresses for 5338 birth defect cases and 4574 frequency-matched controls using an automated procedure with standard matching criteria in ArcGIS 8.2 and 8.3. Initially, we matched 7266 observations (73%). To increase the proportion of successful matches, we used an interactive procedure for the 2646 addresses that were initially not geocoded by the software. This yielded an additional 985 matches (37%). Using the same 2646 initially unmatched addresses, we compared the results of this interactive procedure to those of an automated procedure using lower standards. The automated procedure with lower standards yielded more matches (, 59%) but with questionable accuracy. We included the interactively geocoded observations in our final data set. Their inclusion did not affect the estimates of air pollution exposure but increased our statistical power to detect associations between air quality and risk of selected birth defects. The geocoded and not geocoded populations differed in the distribution of Latino ethnicity (51% vs 59%) and ethnicity was independently associated with air pollution exposures . Geocoding status also appeared to modify the association between ethnicity and risk of birth defects; Latina women appeared to have a slightly lower risk of birth defects than non-Latina women in the geocoded population and to have a slightly higher risk in the not geocoded population. Incomplete geocoding may have resulted in a selection bias because of the underrepresentation of Latinas in our study population. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: State vital records are often used to select population-based controls in record-linkage studies of birth defects. However, locating and contacting individuals based on these data sources to collect additional data can be a challenge., Methods: A large case-control study of air quality and birth defects was conducted in 7 Texas counties in which cases were selected from the Texas Birth Defects Registry and controls from state vital records. In 2004, data from these sources were used to trace mothers of cases and controls who delivered babies in the year 2000 (n=2477) for participation in a computer-assisted telephone interview. A number of factors that predicted whether an individual would be located and interviewed were identified., Results: Between March and August 2004, 38% of the mothers were located, and 38% of the located mothers were interviewed. Case mothers were more likely than control mothers to be located (44 vs. 30%) and, if located, to be interviewed (43 vs. 31%). We compared the characteristics of mothers who were not located (case n=760; control n=777), mothers who were located but not interviewed (case n=344; control n=236), and mothers who were interviewed (case n=256; control n=104). Among both cases and controls, older mothers (>or=30 years) were more likely than younger mothers to be located, and non-Hispanic black mothers were least likely to be located and interviewed., Conclusions: Despite the utility of vital records as a source of population-based controls in record-linkage analyses, the poor response rate discourages the use of these data sources to contact individuals for a follow-up study 4 years after delivery., (Copyright (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)