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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Sociodemographic factors associated with weekend birth and increased risk of neonatal mortality
Patti Hamilton1, Elizabeth Restrepo
1College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, Denton, TX 76011, USA. phamilton@twu.edu
Objective:
To learn whether weekend risk of neonatal mortality is related to selected sociodemographic factors.
Design:
A retrospective cohort design. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios, and analysis of variance and chi-square to identify differences in values and incidence of key variables.
Samples:
The data were derived from matched Texas birth and infant death certificates from 1999 through 2001.
Main Outcome Measures:
A subset of deaths up to 28 days of life attributable to conditions originating in the perinatal period. These deaths were called neonatal mortality-p.
Results:
Women who were White, married, had Medicaid assistance, and had private prenatal care were less likely to deliver on weekends. Odds of neonatal mortality-p increased 36.5% when a birth took place on the weekend. The weekend crude odds of neonatal mortality-p increased for all racial/ethnic groups, but the differences were not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
The likelihood of delivering on the weekend increases with certain sociodemographic factors. This fact is important because the risk of neonatal mortality is higher among weekend births.
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