The Association Between Maternal Occupation as a Cleaner/Maid/Janitor During Early Pregnancy and Selected Birth Defects in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Yang, Yining ; Herdt, Michele ; Hosler, Akiko S. ; Rocheleau, Carissa M. ; Desrosiers, Tania A. ; Howley, Meredith M.
• Description:
  Cleaning work involves potential exposures to physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial hazards that might increase the risk of birth defects. Yet, there is limited research focused on maternal occupation in cleaning jobs and the risk of birth defects. This study sought to investigate the association between maternal occupation in cleaning jobs during early pregnancy and selected birth defects in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, a multi-site, case-control study from 1997-2011. Cases were live births, stillbirths, or terminated pregnancies with an eligible birth defect ascertained from state or regional surveillance systems; controls were live births without structural defects randomly selected from the same base population as cases. During telephone interviews, participants self-reported information about jobs held during one month before conception through the first trimester. After restricting to those who reported employment, expert raters classified reported primary jobs into non-cleaning and cleaning (maids, janitors, and other) occupations. We calculated adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using logistic regression for the association between cleaning occupations and 19 selected birth defects, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, body mass index, folic acid use, gravidity, and study site. In total, 1,109 participants (868 cases, 241 controls) reported a cleaning occupation during early pregnancy and 26,235 reported a non-cleaning occupation. For cleaning occupations combined, nine defects had elevated ORs (ORs>1.5), of which six had CIs that excluded the null: anencephaly (1.98; 1.26-3.13), glaucoma (2.58; 1.24-5.36), anotia/microtia (2.34; 1.55-3.52), cleft lip and palate (1.64; 1.23-2.20), esophageal atresia (2.65; 1.76- 3.98), and small intestinal atresia (2.10; 1.28-3.44). Among maids (677 cases, 191 controls), ORs were elevated for five defects: anencephaly (2.37; 1.47-3.81), holoprosencephaly (1.99; 0.83-4.74), glaucoma (2.65; 1.17-6.01), anotia/microtia (2.74; 1.78-4.23), and small intestinal atresia (2.71; 1.64-4.47). Among janitors (138 cases, 41 controls), ORs for two defects were elevated: anorectal atresia (3.31; 1.65-6.65) and esophageal atresia (3.75; 1.70-8.23). We observed that maternal occupation in cleaning-related jobs was associated with several specific birth defects in various body systems. The study provides valuable insights into the association between maternal occupation in cleaning jobs during early pregnancy and specific birth defects. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Congenital Abnormalities
  • Female
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • Birth defects; Pregnancy; Occupations; Case control studies; Housekeeping personnel; Women; Surveillance
• Source:
  Birth Defects Res 2025 May; 117(Suppl 1):S70
• ISSN:
  2472-1727
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Atlanta Region OSHA ; Chicago Region OSHA ; New York ; New York City Region OSHA ; North Carolina ; Ohio
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSI - Division of Science Integration
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  2 pdf pages
• Volume:
  117
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20071569
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/259344/cdc_259344_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.02 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f52ea3eafb2d77beae94c40652fc97e89df46a5018dbad6bd00ff5b49c959eb157a440ae59d89858c22359747dd9c5f2b3b49d547a81349d911e231ff0566113