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Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on June 12, 2007
Occupational Medicine 2007 57(6):417-423; doi:10.1093/occmed/kqm038
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Maternal occupation and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a Finnish population-based study

Parvez Ahmed1 and Jouni J. K. Jaakkola1,2

1 Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
2 Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Background There is accumulating evidence that the type of work and environmental exposures in the working environment may have adverse effects on foetal development.

Aim To compare the risk of low birth weight (LBW), small-for-gestational age (SGA) and pre-term delivery (PD) in broad categories of maternal occupation including farming and forestry; factory, mining and construction; office, non-manual and service work and housewives.

Methods The study population consisted of 2568 singleton newborns of women who participated in The Finnish Prenatal Environment and Health Study after the delivery (response rate 94%). Information on maternal occupation and work during pregnancy was collected after the delivery. The health outcomes were LBW (<2500 g), SGA and PD (<37 weeks).

Results In newborns of women working in factories, mining and construction, the risk of LBW (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15–11.62), SGA (adjusted OR 1.53, 95% CI 0.73–3.21), but not the risk of PD (adjusted OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.19–2.22), was higher compared with newborns of housewives. In newborns of farmers and forestry workers, the risks of PD (adjusted OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.01–5.65), LBW (adjusted OR 2.86, 95% CI 0.78–11.58) and SGA (adjusted OR 1.51, 95% CI 0.62–3.65) were all elevated. In office, non-manual and service workers, the corresponding estimates were lower (LBW: 1.62, 0.67–3.95; SGA: 1.45, 0.92–2.28; PD: 1.18, 0.69–2.01).

Conclusions There were substantial differences in the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes between the main branches of industry.

Keywords      Low birth weight; occupational exposure; pre-term delivery; small-for-gestational age; type of works

Correspondence to: Jouni J. K. Jaakkola, Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 121 414 6671; fax: +44 (0) 121 414 6217; e-mail: j.jaakkola{at}bham.ac.uk


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