title: Prevalence of Down syndrome among children and adolescents in 10 regions of the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We aimed to estimate the prevalence of Down syndrome (DS) among children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 years in 10 regions of the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a cross-sectional analysis of live-born infants with DS during 1979-2003 from 10 population-based birth defects registries in the United States. We estimated the prevalence of DS at birth and among children aged 0 to 19 years in each region and in all regions pooled. The prevalence of DS among children and adolescents was calculated overall and according to age group, race/ethnicity, infant gender, and presence of a major heart defect.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 1979 through 2003, the prevalence of DS at birth increased by 31.1%, from 9.0 to 11.8 per 10000 live births in 10 US regions. In 2002, the prevalence among children and adolescents (0-19 years old) was 10.3 per 10000. The prevalence of DS among children in a given age group consistently increased over time but decreased with age within a given birth cohort. The pooled prevalence of DS among children and adolescents was lower among non-Hispanic black individuals and other racial/ethnic groups compared with non-Hispanic white individuals; it was also lower among females than males.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides prevalence estimates of DS among children and adolescents from 10 US regions. These estimates varied according to region, race/ethnicity, and gender, suggesting possible variation in prevalence at birth or in survival rates on the basis of these characteristics.
authors: Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA. mshin@cdc.gov
authors: Mikyong
authors: M
authors: Shin
authors: Lilah M
authors: LM
authors: Besser
authors: James E
authors: JE
authors: Kucik
authors: Chengxing
authors: C
authors: Lu
authors: Csaba
authors: C
authors: Siffel
authors: Adolfo
authors: A
authors: Correa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States