American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 132, No. 1: 96-106
Copyright © 1990 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
research-article |
ADVERSE REPRODUCTIVE OUTCOMES AMONG FEMALE VETERINARIANS
1Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Northern California Occupational Health Center, University of California Davis, CA
2Division of Reproductive Biology and Medicine, University of California Davis, CA
Reprint requests to Dr. Marc B. Schenker, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Institute for Toxicology and Environmental Health, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
Because female veterinarians are exposed to several known reproductive hazards, the authors conducted a reproductive survey of all female graduates of a US veterinary school (n=537) and law school (comparison group, n=794). Analysis was confined to pregnancies completed after the second year of professional school and from 1966 to 1986. Based on one randomly chosen eligible pregnancy per woman (veterinarians, n=176; lawyers, n=229), spontaneous abortion rates, adjusted for elective abortions, were 13.3% for the veterinarians and 15.1% for the lawyers; these did not differ significantly. A Cox life table regression model controlling for age, smoking, alcohol use, and prior spontaneous abortion also showed no significant difference in spontaneous abortion rates between the two populations. Using all pregnancies, veterinarians who reported performing five or more radiographic examinations per week had a marginally elevated risk of spontaneous abortion, but the statistical significance disappeared when analysis was limited to one random pregnancy per woman. For one random eligible birth per woman, the mean birth weight did not differ significantly between the veterinarians and lawyers, even after controlling for possible confounders in regression analyses. A higher rate of reportable birth defects was observed among the veterinarians than among the lawyers (relative risk=4.2, 95% confidence interval 1.2–15.1), but this unexpected result must be considered hypothesis-generating. The authors did not find an overall increased risk for spontaneous abortion or low birth weight infants among veterinarians compared with lawyers, but veterinarians who reported performing five or more radiographic examinations per week may have been at increased risk for spontaneous abortion.
abnormalities; abortion; abortion, induced; anesthetics; infant, low birth weight; radiation; veterinary medicine; women, working
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A Shirangi, L Fritschi, and C D J Holman Maternal occupational exposures and risk of spontaneous abortion in veterinary practice Occup. Environ. Med., November 1, 2008; 65(11): 719 - 725. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. A. Klebanoff, P. H. Shiono, and G. G. Rhoads Spontaneous and Induced Abortion Among Resident Physicians JAMA, June 5, 1991; 265(21): 2821 - 2825. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|