Newborn Screening (NBS) Data, California, 2014–2018
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The Sickle Cell Data Collection (SCDC) program monitors and reports on the health of people with sickle cell disease (SCD) over time. Data from the state’s newborn screening (NBS) program are an important part of the SCDC program because they provide information about the SCD births that occur every year. California’s NBS data are available in 5-year increments, beginning in 2006. The most recent data, 2014–2018, are presented below.
The data provide the number of babies born with SCD in the state, their demographics, and their type of SCD. The people included in these data were born in California during 2014–2018 and reported by the state NBS program with a confirmed diagnosis of SCD.
The individuals in the NBS data are also included in the California SCDC program data for the years during which they were living in the state. In California, the SCD births most recently reported by NBS for a single year (2018) are approximately 1.4% of California’s total population with SCD identified by SCDC for that year. For information about all individuals with SCD living in California, including those identified through NBS and those identified from other data sources, please visit the SCDC Demographics and Healthcare Utilization Data, California page.
Map 1: More than 40% of the counties in California had at least one SCD birth during 2014–2018. More than 30% of the SCD births in California occurred in Los Angeles County.
Figure 1. There was an average of 84 SCD births per year in California during 2014—2018.
Figure 2: There were a total of 420 SCD births in California during 2014–2018. There were 199 male births (47%) and 221 female births (53%).
Figure 3: Fifty-four percent of the SCD births in California during 2014–2018 were babies with hemoglobin (Hb) S/S or S/β0 thalassemia, 29% were Hb S/C, and 8% were Hb S/β+ thalassemia. The remaining babies had other or unknown types of SCD.
*NOTE: The sum of all categories may not total to 100% due to rounding errors.
