TY - JOUR

T1 - Night work and sick leave during pregnancy

T2 - a national register-based within-worker cohort study

AU - Hammer, Paula Edeusa Cristina

AU - Garde, Anne Helene

AU - Begtrup, Luise Moelenberg

AU - Flachs, Esben Meulengracht

AU - Hansen, Johnni

AU - Hansen, Åse Marie

AU - Hougaard, Karin Sørig

AU - Kolstad, Henrik A.

AU - Larsen, Ann Dyreborg

AU - Pinborg, Anja Bisgaard

AU - Specht, Ina Olmer

AU - Bonde, Jens Peter

N1 - © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to investigate the acute effect of night work during pregnancy on the risk of calling in sick the following day using register-based information and the workers as their own controls.METHODS: Using the payroll-based national Danish Working Hour Database, including all public hospital employees in Denmark, we identified 9799 pregnant women with ≥1 day shift and ≥1 night shift and ≥1 day of sick leave during the first 32 pregnancy weeks from January 2007 to December 2013. We performed fixed effects logistic regression, that is, within-worker comparisons, of the risk of sick leave of any duration starting within 24 hours after night shifts of different length versus day shifts.RESULTS: Most of the participants were nurses (64%) or physicians (16%). We found an increased relative risk of sick leave following night shifts compared with day shifts during all pregnancy trimesters. The risk was highest for night shifts lasting >12 hours (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.63 for nurses; OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.69 to 2.08 for physicians) and among women aged >35 years (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.63).CONCLUSION: Among Danish public hospital employees night shifts during pregnancy, especially shifts longer than 12 hours, increased the risk of calling in sick the following day independent of personal factors and time-invariant confounders in all pregnancy trimesters.

AB - OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to investigate the acute effect of night work during pregnancy on the risk of calling in sick the following day using register-based information and the workers as their own controls.METHODS: Using the payroll-based national Danish Working Hour Database, including all public hospital employees in Denmark, we identified 9799 pregnant women with ≥1 day shift and ≥1 night shift and ≥1 day of sick leave during the first 32 pregnancy weeks from January 2007 to December 2013. We performed fixed effects logistic regression, that is, within-worker comparisons, of the risk of sick leave of any duration starting within 24 hours after night shifts of different length versus day shifts.RESULTS: Most of the participants were nurses (64%) or physicians (16%). We found an increased relative risk of sick leave following night shifts compared with day shifts during all pregnancy trimesters. The risk was highest for night shifts lasting >12 hours (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.63 for nurses; OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.69 to 2.08 for physicians) and among women aged >35 years (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.63).CONCLUSION: Among Danish public hospital employees night shifts during pregnancy, especially shifts longer than 12 hours, increased the risk of calling in sick the following day independent of personal factors and time-invariant confounders in all pregnancy trimesters.

U2 - 10.1136/oemed-2018-105331

DO - 10.1136/oemed-2018-105331

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 30661025

VL - 76

SP - 163

EP - 168

JO - Occupational and Environmental Medicine

JF - Occupational and Environmental Medicine

SN - 1351-0711

IS - 3

ER -