Epidemiology and Health

Original Article

Does the father’s job matter? Parental occupation and preterm birth in Korea: Taemi Kim, Eunseon Gwak, Bolormaa Erdenetuya, Jeong-Won Oh, Jung-won Yoon, Myoung-Hee Kim, Jia Ryu, Seung-Ah Choe; Epidemiol Health. 2023;45:e2023078. Published online August 24, 2023; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2023078

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Abstract Summary PDF Supplementary Material: Abstract
OBJECTIVES
Limited evidence is available regarding the impact of paternal occupation and its combined effect with maternal occupation on preterm birth. Therefore, we assessed the association of maternal and paternal occupations with preterm birth.
METHODS
We used the national birth data of Korea between 2010 and 2020. Parental occupations were divided into 5 categories: (1) managers; (2) professionals, technicians, and related workers; (3) clerks and support workers; (4) service and sales workers; and (5) manual workers. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to calculate the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of extremely, very, and moderate-to-late preterm births per occupational category considering individual risk factors.
RESULTS
For the 4,004,976 singleton births, 40.2% of mothers and 95.5% of fathers were employed. Compared to non-employment, employment was associated with a lower risk of preterm birth. Among employed mothers, service and sales occupations were associated with a higher risk of preterm birth than managerial occupations (aOR, 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01 to 1.10 for moderate-to-late preterm births). The father’s manual occupation was associated with a higher risk of preterm birth (aOR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.13 for moderate-to-late preterm) than managerial occupations. When both parents had high-risk occupations, the risk of preterm birth was higher than in cases where only the mother or neither of the parents had a high-risk occupation.
CONCLUSIONS
Paternal occupation was associated with preterm birth regardless of maternal employment and occupation and modified the effect of maternal occupation. Detailed occupational environment data are needed to identify the paternal exposures that increase the risk.; Summary

Korean summary
본 연구는 2010년부터 2020년까지 출생신고자료를 활용하여 부모의 직업이 조산에 미치는 영향에 대해 살펴보았다. 어머니의 경우 서비스 및 판매직종에서 근무할 경우 관리자 직종에 비해 조산 위험이 높았고, 아버지의 경우 육체노동자일 경우 조산의 위험이 높아졌다. 특히 부모 모두 고위험 직업을 가질수록 한쪽만 고위험 직업을 가졌을 때보다 조산 위험이 더 높았다.

Key Message
This study explored the association between parental occupation and preterm birth using Korean national birth data from 2010 to 2020. The analysis revealed that employment was associated with a lower preterm birth risk. Among employed mothers, service and sales occupations exhibited a higher risk than managerial occupations and paternal manual occupations were associated with increased preterm birth risk. When both parents were employed in high-risk occupations, the probability of preterm birth was greater compared to cases where only one of them had such an occupation.

Brief Communication

Occupational inequalities in mortality in Korea: an analysis using nationally representative mortality follow-up data from the late 2000s and after: Eunjeong Noh, Young-Ho Khang; Epidemiol Health. 2022;44:e2022038. Published online April 6, 2022; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2022038

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1 Web of Science
1 Crossref

Abstract Summary PDF Supplementary Material

Abstract

Many Korean and international studies have found higher mortality rates and poorer health conditions among manual workers than among non-manual workers. However, a recent study using unlinked data argued that since the economic crisis in Korea in the late 2000s, the mortality estimates of male Korean non-manual workers have been higher than those of manual workers. Our work using individually linked data from the late 2000s and after aimed to examine mortality inequality by occupational class. We analyzed Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data that were individually linked to cause-of-death data. Cox regression analysis was used to identify the hazard ratios for mortality by occupational class. Of 11,766 males aged between 35 and 64, 397 died between 2007 and 2018: 142 died from cancer, 68 from cardiovascular disease, 88 from external causes, and 99 from other causes. After controlling for age, the mortality estimates for manual workers were 1.85 times higher than those for upper non-manual workers (p<0.05). We observed no evidence of reversed mortality inequality among occupational classes in Korea since the 2000s; this previously reported finding might have been due to numerator-denominator bias arising from the use of unlinked data.

Summary

Korean summary
개인 단위 연계자료가 아닌 분모(센서스)-분자(사망신고) 집합 자료를 사용하여 2000년대 후반 경제위기 이후 한국 남성 비육체직의 사망률이 육체직보다 높게 나타난다고 기존의 한 연구가 주장했다. 이 연구는 2000년대 이후 개인 단위로 연계된 코호트 자료를 활용하여 여전히 한국에서 육체직의 사망위험이 비육체직보다 높다는 점을 보임으로써, 기존 연구가 비연계자료의 사용으로 인한 분자-분모 바이어스(numerator-denominator bias) 때문에 그와 같은 결과를 보였다고 지적하였다.

Key Message
This paper using individually linked data from the late 2000s and after observed no evidence of reversed mortality inequality among occupational classes in Korea since the 2000s. The previously reported finding showing reversed occupational mortality inequality might have been due to numerator-denominator bias arising from the use of unlinked data.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Mortality of Suicide and Cerebro-Cardiovascular Diseases by Occupation in Korea, 1997–2020
Jungwon Jang, Inah Kim
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.2022; 19(16): 10001. CrossRef

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