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Physical activity, physical exertion, and miscarriage risk in women textile workers in Shanghai, China
Eva Y Wong1, Ray Ray, Dao L Gao
1Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. evawong@u.washington.edu
Background:
Strenuous occupational physical activity and physical demands may be risk factors for adverse reproductive outcomes.
Methods:
A retrospective study in the Shanghai, China textile industry study collected women's self-reported reproductive history. Occupational physical activity assessment linked complete work history data to an industry-specific job-exposure matrix. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by multivariate logistic regression for the first pregnancy outcome and utilized generalized estimating equations to consider all pregnancies per woman.
Results:
Compared with women employed in sedentary jobs, a reduced risk of miscarriage was found for women working in jobs with either light (OR 0.18, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.50) or medium (OR 0.24, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.66) physical activity during the first pregnancy and over all pregnancies (light OR 0.32, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.61; medium OR 0.43, 95% CI: 0.23, 0.80). Frequent crouching was associated with elevated risk (OR 1.82, 95% CI: 1.14, 2.93; all pregnancies per woman).
Conclusions:
Light/medium occupational physical activity may have reduced miscarriage risk, while specific occupational characteristics such as crouching may have increased risk in this cohort.
