The Risk of Having a Low Birth Weight or Preterm Infant among Cosmetologists in New York State

Objectives This study sought to determine if female licensed cosmetologists have a higher risk of low birth weight, small-for-gestational-age, and preterm delivery compared to two different comparison groups. Methods This retrospective cohort study matched 15,003 licensed cosmetologists and a compar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Maternal and child health journal 2009-01, Vol.13 (1), p.90-97
Main Authors: Herdt-Losavio, Michele L., Lin, Shao, Druschel, Charlotte M., Hwang, Syni-An, Mauer, Matthew P., Carlson, G. Anders
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Birth weight
Childrens health
Cohort analysis
Cohort Studies
Cosmetics
Cosmetology
Ethnicity
Female
Female employees
Gynecology
Hair
Hairdressers
Humans
Infant, Low Birth Weight
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Licenses
Licensing
Male
Maternal and Child Health
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Multiple births
Names
New York - epidemiology
Occupational Exposure - adverse effects
Occupational Exposure - statistics & numerical data
Pediatrics
Population Economics
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications - epidemiology
Premature babies
Premature birth
Public Health
Retrospective Studies
Risk Factors
Sociology
Womens health
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Summary:Objectives This study sought to determine if female licensed cosmetologists have a higher risk of low birth weight, small-for-gestational-age, and preterm delivery compared to two different comparison groups. Methods This retrospective cohort study matched 15,003 licensed cosmetologists and a comparison group of 4,246 licensed realtors to birth records in New York State from 1997 to 2003. A second comparison group from the general population of New York State ( n  = 12,171) was frequency matched to cosmetologists on child’s year of birth, mother’s ethnicity and mother’s education. Results A positive association was found for low birth weight when comparing cosmetologists to realtors (adjusted odds ratio 1.36 (95% confidence interval: 1.09, 1.70)). Associations were stronger in non-whites than in whites in each birth weight comparison. Associations observed for small-for-gestational-age or preterm births with either comparison group were close to the null or had wide confidence intervals that included the null. Conclusions We observed a slightly increased risk for having a child born low birth weight among cosmetologists compared to another group of licensed professionals. The risk was greater among non-white races in each comparison.
ISSN:1092-7875
1573-6628
DOI:10.1007/s10995-008-0324-6