title: Employment, working conditions, and preterm birth: results from the Europop case-control survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyse the relation between preterm birth and working conditions in Europe using common measures of exposure and to test whether employment related risks varied by country of residence.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study in which cases included all consecutive singleton preterm births and controls included one of every ten singleton term births in each participating maternity unit. Data about working conditions were obtained by interview from women after delivery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen European countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  The analysis included 5145 preterm and 7911 term births of which 2369 preterm and 4098 term births were to women employed during pregnancy. Analyses of working conditions were carried out for women working through at least the third month of pregnancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Employed women did not have an excess risk of preterm birth. Among working women, a moderate excess risk was observed for women working more than 42 hours a week (OR = 1.33, CI = 1.1 to 1.6), standing more than six hours a day (OR = 1.26, CI = 1.1 to 1.5), and for women with low job satisfaction (OR = 1.27, CI = 1.1 to 1.5). There were stronger links in countries with a lower overall level of perinatal health and a common practice of long prenatal leaves.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings show that specific working conditions affect the risk of preterm birth. They also suggest employment related risks could be mediated by the social and legislative context.
authors.affiliation: INSERM Unité 149-IFR69, 16 Avenue Paul Vaillant-Couturier, 94807 Villejuif cedex, France. saurel@vjf.inserm.fr
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Saurel-Cubizolles
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeitlin
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lelong
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papiernik
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Di Renzo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bréart
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004651:Employment; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009790:Occupations; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012307:Risk Factors; D014931:Women, Working