Significantly more babies were born on a weekday instead of weekend day or holiday, reveals a large-scale analysis of 21 million births in Japan over almost four decades published February 14, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Miho Sassa from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues.
Medical resources are generally stretched during holidays (including weekends) due to factors like staffing and hospital policies. This may amplify holiday effects: disparities and variations of health outcomes between holidays and weekdays. Dr. Sassa and colleagues studied this holiday effect with a focus on birth, especially high-risk births as measured by babies born preterm and/or with a low birthweight.
The authors used birth certificate data from over 21 million individuals born from 1979-2018 (which included birthday, birthweight, and gestational age) to categorize individuals into five groups: low birthweight (
They found that all births were significantly less common on weekend or holiday periods versus weekends (p
The authors add: "Delving into decades of birth data in Japan, our research illuminates a fascinating trend—deliveries on holidays, especially those deemed high-risk, show a distinct decline. This discovery prompts a call for innovative solutions and systemic strategies to safeguard maternal and neonatal well-being anytime, demonstrating the need for creative thinking in optimizing medical resources for everyone."
