Journal Article

Prevalence of abortion and adverse pregnancy outcomes among working women in Korea: A cross-sectional study

Kim, Eun-A, Kang, Mo-Yeol, Park, Chulyong, Kim, Dohyung, Eom, Huisu, Park, Jaechan

2017

Overview

To investigate incidence and distribution of major adverse reproductive health problems related to various kinds of industries in Korea and to compare risks for major reproductive outcomes to assess maternal health in working and non-working women. We requested claim data from the Korean National Health Insurance. We defined reference groups as (1) non-working women and (2) workers in the education field. Women working in each industry were compared with reference groups regarding rates of miscarriage, threatened abortion, preterm labor, and intrauterine growth restriction. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis, and age and income adjustment was performed. The percentages of all adverse obstetric outcomes were higher in working women than in non-working women. Working women had higher and statistically significant adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for miscarriage in 18 of the 21 industries. The age and income-adjusted OR for miscarriage for all working women was 1.26 (95% confidence interval, 1.23-1.28). Business facilities management and business support services, manufacturing, human health and social work activities, wholesale and retail trade, and professional, scientific, and technical activities were major industries with higher adjusted ORs for adverse obstetric outcomes. We confirmed that compared to non-working women, working women have a higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Thus, adverse pregnancy outcomes such as threatened abortion, preterm labor, and intrauterine growth restriction may be associated with working status. This exploratory study identified several industries where in-depth studies are required in future to improve occupational safety in women of reproductive age.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Abortion / Abortion, Induced - statistics & numerical data / Abortion, Spontaneous - epidemiology / Adjustment / Adult / Age / Business / Confidence intervals / Cross-Sectional Studies / Employment / Engineering and Technology / Facilities management / Female / Female employees / Health care / Health problems / Health risk assessment / Humans / Incidence / Income / Labor / Laboratories / Manufacturers / Manufacturing / Medical research / Medicine and Health Sciences / Menstruation / Miscarriage / Multivariate analysis / Obstetric Labor, Premature - epidemiology / Occupational Health / Occupational safety / Plastics industry / Pregnancy / Pregnancy Outcome - epidemiology / Prevalence / Preventive medicine / Regression analysis / Reproduction / Reproductive health / Reproductive systems / Republic of Korea - epidemiology / Shift work / Social Sciences / Statistical analysis / Support services / Women, Working / Womens health / Workers / Young Adult