Neonatal mortality among low birth weight infants during the initial months of the academic year.
OBJECTIVE
Proper management of very low weight (<1500 g) infants requires specific expertise. During July and August, pediatric interns start new rotations and advance in responsibilities by postgraduate level. We test the hypothesis that low weight births in teaching hospitals exhibit increased neonatal mortality during the initial training months.


METHODS
Population-based cohort of 5184 very low weight and 15 232 moderately low weight infants in California from 19 regional teaching hospitals with medical training programs. Logistic regression methods controlled for both individual covariates and temporal patterns in neonatal mortality.


RESULTS
We found no difference in neonatal mortality between very low weight infants born in teaching hospitals during July and August and those born in other months (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.78 to 1.23). Investigation of moderately low birth weight infants also indicated no increased neonatal mortality.


CONCLUSIONS
Infants most likely to die in the neonatal period do not appear to be at elevated risk of neonatal mortality during July and August.
Bruckner
T A
TA
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94704, USA. brucknet@berkeley.edu
Carlo
W A
WA
Ambalavanan
N
N
Gould
J B
JB
D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012621:Seasons; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors