Objectives No studies have examined the association between preterm birth rates and socioeconomic factors in Japan using nationwide statistical data. We analyzed the association between preterm birth rates and household occupation using Vital Statistics data.
Methods Aggregated Vital Statistics data from Japan from 2007 to 2019 were obtained from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. From the data, the number of births according to year, age group, gestational period, number of pregnancies, and household occupation were used in this study. Crude preterm birth rates and preterm birth rates adjusted by maternal age according to household occupation were calculated for each year. Poisson regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between household occupation and preterm births.
Results Unemployed households had the highest preterm birth rate, and households with an occupation classification of “full-time worker 2” (an employee at a large company, civil servant, or board member) had the lowest preterm birth rate throughout each period. Poisson regression analysis revealed that unemployed households were statistically significantly associated with a high preterm birth risk. In contrast, the preterm birth rate adjusted by maternal age remained stable throughout each period regardless of household occupation, and preterm birth rates were found not to have increased in recent years in Japan.
Conclusions Unemployed households had higher preterm birth rates than other household occupations. Further studies investigating the characteristics of unemployed households are needed to identify the reasons for this disparity.
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Methods Data from 10 349 602 live births registered with Statistics Korea from 1997 to 2017 were analyzed. The secondary sex ratio (SSR), defined as the ratio of male to female live births, during the study period (1997-1999 [phase I], 2000-2002 [phase II], 2003-2005 [phase III], 2006-2008 [phase IV], 2009-2011 [phase V], 2012-2014 [phase VI], and 2015-2017 [phase VII]) was calculated according to selected socio-demographic factors, such as parental age, education, occupation, and birth order. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for a male birth after adjusting for potential confounders.
Results The SSR gradually decreased from 1.10 (in 1998-2000 and 2002) to 1.05 (in 2013-2016). While a decreasing trend in the SSR was not noted among first births, male-biased sex ratios were prominent among third and higher-order births, for which the highest SSR was 1.46 in 1998. Higher birth order was significantly associated with an excess of male births in phases I-VI (≥third vs. first, OR range, 1.03 to 1.35). Advanced maternal age was significantly associated with an excess of female births in phases II, III, and V (≥40 vs. 20-24 years, OR range, 0.92 to 0.95).
Conclusions This study demonstrated that advanced maternal age and reduction of the artificially-biased SSR among third and higher-order births may partially explain the decreasing trend in the SSR from 1997 to 2017 in Korea.
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OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in smoking rates according to the major occupational categories in South Korea. METHODS: The study subjects were a weighted sample of 24,495 men and 26,121 women aged 25-64 from the 2003 Social Statistics Survey, which was conducted by the Korea National Statistical Office. Occupation was classified according to the Korean Standard Occupation Classification. We computed the age-standardized smoking rates according to gender and occupations after adjusting for the education level, marital status, and self-rated health. RESULTS: For men, the smoking rate in elementary occupations was two times higher than that of clerks (OR= 1.98, 95% CI=1.74-2.26). In general, a more prestigious job(professionals) correlated with lower smoking rates, and less prestigious jobs correlated with higher smoking rates, except for legislators, senior officials and managers. For women, smoking among service workers was 4.1 times higher than among clerical workers (OR=4.11, 95% CI= 2.87-5.88). For women, their occupations, except elementary workers, and the unemployed, the retired and the armed forces, failed to show significant differences in smoking compared with the clerical workers. After adjusting for education, occupational differences in the smoking rate for men were attenuated in most occupations, except for legislators, professionals, and technicians. Further adjustment for marital status and self-rated health had a minimal effect on the occupational differences in the smoking rate for men. For women workers with service or elementary occupations, the ORs of smoking were attenuated with adjustment of the educational levels. However, the ORs of smoking were increased in workers with service, sales or elementary occupations, as well as for legislators, and the unemployed, the retired and the armed forces, after additionally adjusting for marital status. CONCLUSIONS: More prestigious jobs generally correlated with lower smoking rates in both sexes. The anti-tobacco policy should consider smoking rate differentials by occupations.