Influence of obesity on the use of sickness absence and social benefits among pregnant working women

Abstract

To evaluate if obesity in early pregnancy has any possible impact on the capacity of pregnant women to engage in gainful employment. Register data from a database on sickness absence and pregnancy benefit and parental benefit claims were combined with type of occupation and body mass index (BMI) for 693 women consecutively delivered during the course of one year at a county hospital in Sweden. The results showed the lowest BMI among women who had administrative jobs and the highest BMI in women who undertook more burdensome and heavy types of manual work. A significant increase in BMI was also seen among those pregnant women who were registered as unemployed. The finding that in the manual types of occupation, obese pregnant women took almost twice as many days of leave provided by the parental benefit programme as did women with a BMI of <25, indicates that obese pregnant women perhaps do not have the same physical endurance required to manage the combined demands of work and pregnancy. No differences were found with regard to sickness absence between obese women and pregnant women with normal BMI; however, differences were found between different occupational groups. Our study indicates that a woman's BMI at the beginning of pregnancy is associated with her occupational status. Obesity among pregnant women may well be used as a psychosocial indicator as obesity correlates with social and economic problems. Any planned weight reduction programme in antenatal care must therefore consider this important psychosocial aspect.