Nascimento de fim de semana não é mais arriscado do que o dia da semana

 

Risk of Infant Death and Quality of Care Doesn't Change, de como usar misoprostol

FROM THE WEBMD ARCHIVES 

June 10, 2003 -- Babies born in the hospital on weekends are not at greater risk of dying than babies born during the week. A new California-based study suggests that the risk of infant death doesn't necessarily rise if the birth happens on a weekend.

Researchers say several recent reports have shown that adults with some serious medical conditions may fare worse if they are admitted to the hospital on weekends, which raised the concerns about the quality of medical care provided by hospitals on weekends.

Although previous studies conducted in the 1970s showed that fewer babies were born in the U.S. on weekends and infant death rates were higher for weekend births, researchers say those studies didn't take other important factors into account and little is known about the current pattern of weekly births.

In this study, researchers examined more than 1.6 million births in California from 1995 to 1997 to determine the pattern of births, cesarean deliveries (C-sections), and infant deaths. The study is published in the June 11 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers found an overall 17.5% decrease in births on weekends. The average number of daily births was highest on Tuesday (1,629), steadily decreased to 1,593 on Friday, and then dropped to 1,272 on Saturday and 1,159 on Sunday. On average, the percentage of cesarean births ranges from 21% to 23% on weekdays and fell to 15% to 17% on weekends.

Infant death rates increased from an average of 2.8 deaths per 1,000 weekday births to 3.12 deaths per 1,000 weekend births.

But the study also found that the weekend decreases in births were least pronounced among smaller infants. Researchers say that means there was a higher concentration of low-birth-weight babies who are at greater risk of infant death than others. In addition, there were also more babies born with birth defects on weekends.

After taking those factors into account, researchers found there was no increase in the risk of death for infants born on weekends vs. weekdays.

"In summary, we found no evidence that the quality of perinatal care in California was compromised during the weekend," write researcher Jeffrey B. Gould, MD, MPH, of the school of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues.

But because circumstances may vary in different states and countries, researchers say their findings about infant death risks may not be generalized beyond the state of California.

"Fortunately, the availability of state vital records as well as national linked birth-death data sets that include day of birth make it possible for other states to evaluate the extent to which mortality for their weekend births may be increased and the contribution of case mix and care," they write.

SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, June 11, 2003.