Brith Score Project
Each time a baby is born in a West Virginia hospital, hospital personnel collect data for WVU’s Birth Score Project within 24 hours of the delivery.
Information about the mother and newborn from hospital records, along with the mother’s answers to a set of standard questions, are made part of the Birth Score database. The information is used for risk assessment and referral of high-risk infants to support systems or clinics. State agencies also can use data for program development and planning of services.
This information is also valuable for public health research. Most recently the information has been merged with the CARDIAC program data to evaluate outcomes relating to birth weight and its relation to adult cardiovascular disease and childhood obesity.