Correlates of early fetal death among women working in industry

The objective of the study was to identify and compare occupational-environmental and demographic factors associated with fetal loss using data collected in a large-scale epidemiologic study among female industrial workers. Information on maternal, demographic, and occupational characteristics and on pregnancy outcome was available for 3,332 women classified by gravidity groups. The data were subjected to step-wise regression analysis using the following independent variables: age at pregnancy, pregnancy order, educational level, type of industrial work, smoking during pregnancy, and place of birth. The step-wise procedure showed that two biological characteristics (age and pregnancy order) and two socio-environmental characteristics (educational level, and to a lesser degree, smoking) were all significantly associated with fetal death. The place of origin and the type of industrial work the women performed were not. Fetal death was more frequent in older age groups, in high parity orders, among women with more education, and among smokers.