TY - JOUR

T1 - Manager-oriented intervention to reduce absence among pregnant employees in the healthcare and daycare sector

T2 - A cluster randomised trial

AU - Begtrup, Luise Moelenberg

AU - Malmros, Per

AU - Brauer, Charlotte

AU - Søgaard Toettenborg, Sandra

AU - Flachs, Esben Meulengracht

AU - Hammer, Paula Edeusa Cristina

AU - Bonde, Jens Peter

N1 - Funding Information: Funding The work was supported by the Danish working Environment Research Fund (grant 31-2015-09 20150067279). Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

PY - 2021/7/1

Y1 - 2021/7/1

N2 - The aim was to test if targeting managers with an educational intervention reduces absence among pregnant employees. The study was a non-blinded cluster randomised trial conducted in hospitals and daycare institutions from two administrative Danish Regions and two Danish municipalities. Clusters (work units) were assigned randomly and non-blinded to either (1) intervention, where all managers were invited to participate in a 3-hour seminar addressing needs and options for adjustment of work in pregnancy, or (2) control, with practice as usual. The primary outcome based on payroll data was long-term pregnancy-related absence, defined as ≥12.5% cumulated absence during pregnancy weeks 1–32. Intention-to-treat analysis was applied using mixed logistic regression. Ninety work units were included (56 hospital departments and 34 daycare units) with 451 pregnant employees in the intervention group and 464 in the control group. Work units had on average 11 pregnant employees with no difference between the groups. 103 of the 216 invited managers (48%) participated in a the 3-hour seminar. In the intervention group, 154 (34%) had long-term pregnancy-related absence during pregnancy weeks 1–32 vs 166 (36%) in the control group. Relative odds of having long-term pregnancy-related absence, when being in the intervention group, was 1.06 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.58), with an interclass correlation coefficient of 0.07. An educational intervention targeting managers did not reduce pregnancy-related absence among pregnant employees. NCT03002987.

AB - The aim was to test if targeting managers with an educational intervention reduces absence among pregnant employees. The study was a non-blinded cluster randomised trial conducted in hospitals and daycare institutions from two administrative Danish Regions and two Danish municipalities. Clusters (work units) were assigned randomly and non-blinded to either (1) intervention, where all managers were invited to participate in a 3-hour seminar addressing needs and options for adjustment of work in pregnancy, or (2) control, with practice as usual. The primary outcome based on payroll data was long-term pregnancy-related absence, defined as ≥12.5% cumulated absence during pregnancy weeks 1–32. Intention-to-treat analysis was applied using mixed logistic regression. Ninety work units were included (56 hospital departments and 34 daycare units) with 451 pregnant employees in the intervention group and 464 in the control group. Work units had on average 11 pregnant employees with no difference between the groups. 103 of the 216 invited managers (48%) participated in a the 3-hour seminar. In the intervention group, 154 (34%) had long-term pregnancy-related absence during pregnancy weeks 1–32 vs 166 (36%) in the control group. Relative odds of having long-term pregnancy-related absence, when being in the intervention group, was 1.06 (95% CI 0.71 to 1.58), with an interclass correlation coefficient of 0.07. An educational intervention targeting managers did not reduce pregnancy-related absence among pregnant employees. NCT03002987.

KW - fertility

KW - intervention studies

KW - occupational health practice

KW - organisation of work

KW - sickness absence

U2 - 10.1136/oemed-2020-106794

DO - 10.1136/oemed-2020-106794

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33436380

AN - SCOPUS:85107843964

VL - 78

SP - 465

EP - 471

JO - Occupational and Environmental Medicine

JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine

SN - 1351-0711

IS - 7

ER -