Warning: fopen(/home/virtual/epih/journal/upload/ip_log/ip_log_2023-10.txt): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/virtual/lib/view_data.php on line 83 Warning: fwrite() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in /home/virtual/lib/view_data.php on line 84 Does the father’s job matter? Parental occupation and preterm birth in South Korea
Skip Navigation
Skip to contents

Epidemiol Health : Epidemiology and Health

OPEN ACCESS
SEARCH
Search
Advanced Search
mobile menu button

Articles

Page Path
HOME > Epidemiol Health > Accepted Articles > Article
Original article Does the father’s job matter? Parental occupation and preterm birth in South Korea
Taemi Kim1orcid , Eunseon Gwak1orcid , Erdenetuya Bolormaa1orcid , Jeong-Won Oh2orcid , Jung-won Yoon3orcid , Myoung-Hee Kim3orcid , Jia Ryu4orcid , Seung-Ah Choe1orcid
Epidemiol Health 2023;e2023078
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2023078 [Accepted]
Published online: August 24, 2023
  • 308 Views
  • 18 Download
  • 0 Crossref
  • 0 Scopus
1Korea University, Seoul, Korea
2Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul, Korea
3National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
4Catholic Kwandong University, Gangwon, Korea
Corresponding author:  Seung-Ah Choe,
Email: seungah@korea.ac.kr
Received: 3 April 2023   • Revised: 13 June 2023   • Accepted: 11 August 2023
Full Article

Download PDF Download PDF

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 South 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], 1.01–1.10 for moderate-to-late preterm births). The father’s manual occupation was associated with a higher risk of preterm birth (aOR=1.10; 95% CI, 1.05–1.13 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.

Epidemiol Health : Epidemiology and Health
© Korean Society of Epidemiology.