abstract: 'Objective: Western women increasingly delay having children to advance

  their career, and pregnancy is considered to be riskier among older

  women. In Norway, this development surprisingly coincides with increased

  sickness absence among young pregnant women, rather than their older

  counterparts. This paper tests the hypothesis that young pregnant women

  have a higher number of sick days because this age group includes a

  higher proportion of working class women, who are more prone to sickness

  absence.

  Design: A zero-inflated Poisson regression was conducted on the

  Norwegian population registry.

  Participants: All pregnant employees giving birth in 2004-2008 were

  included in the study. A total number of 216 541 pregnancies were

  observed among 180 483 women.

  Outcome measure: Number of sick days.

  Results: Although the association between age and number of sick days

  was U-shaped, pregnant women in their early 20s had a higher number of

  sick days than those in their mid-40s. This was particularly the case

  for pregnant women with previous births. In this group, 20-year-olds had

  12.6 more sick days than 45-year-olds; this age difference was reduced

  to 6.3 after control for class. Among women undergoing their first

  pregnancy, 20-year-olds initially had 1.2 more sick days than

  45-year-olds, but control for class altered this age difference. After

  control for class, 45-year-old first-time pregnant women had 2.9 more

  sick days than 20-year-olds with corresponding characteristics.

  Conclusions: The negative association between age and sickness absence

  was partly due to younger age groups including more working class women,

  who were more prone to sickness absence. Young pregnant women''s needs

  for job adjustments should not be underestimated.'
affiliation: 'Ariansen, AMS (Corresponding Author), Univ Bergen, Dept Sociol, Bergen,
  Norway.

  Univ Bergen, Dept Sociol, Bergen, Norway.'
article-number: e004381
author: Ariansen, Anja M. S.
author-email: anja.steinsland@sos.uib.no
author_list:
- family: Ariansen
  given: Anja M. S.
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004381
files: []
issn: 2044-6055
journal: BMJ OPEN
keywords-plus: 'JOB ADJUSTMENT; RISK-FACTORS; SOCIAL-CLASS; LEAVE; WORK; EMPLOYMENT;

  HEALTH; POLICY; PREECLAMPSIA; INEQUALITIES'
language: English
number: '5'
number-of-cited-references: '49'
papis_id: 13c35ca31766e965aef3aefe360adbd1
ref: Ariansen2014ageoccupational
times-cited: '17'
title: 'Age, occupational class and sickness absence during pregnancy: a retrospective
  analysis study of the Norwegian population registry'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000336976900002
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '8'
volume: '4'
web-of-science-categories: Medicine, General \& Internal
year: '2014'