Spontaneous abortions in an industrialized community in Finland

Abstract

Spontaneous abortions were analyzed in an industrialized Finnish community according to the occupation and workplace of both the women and their husbands. Information about spontaneous abortions and births was obtained from the hospital discharge register, and data about the women and their families were collected from census files. When compared with all women employed outside the home, women who worked at a textile plant (factory A, a clothing manufacturer) had an increased rate of spontaneous abortion (16.7 per cent vs 11.4 per cent). The rate of spontaneous abortions among women employed at factory A differed according to the husband's workplace. The odds ratio for women employed at factory A whose husbands worked at a large metallurgical factory was 3.8 whereas the odds ratio for women whose husbands worked elsewhere was 1.2. Between 1973 and 1976, the rate of spontaneous abortions in this town was consistently lower for the summer period (May-Agust) than for the other periods of the year.