ArticleInternational journal of epidemiology2023
The effect on women's health of extending parental leave: a quasi-experimental registry-based cohort study.
Article in International journal of epidemiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Postpartum-specific anxiety among working mothers in relation to maternity leave perceptions: a cross-sectional study from Turkey.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mental health risks in pregnancy and early parenthood among male and female parents following unintended pregnancy or fertility treatment: a cross-sectional observational study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Observational
- Disparities in Postpartum Care Visits: The Dynamics of Parental Leave Duration and Postpartum Care Attendance.Maternal and child health journal · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundParental leave policies have been hypothesized to benefit mothers' mental health. We assessed the impact of a 6-week extension of parental leave in Denmark on maternal mental health.
methodsWe linked individual-level data from Danish national registries on maternal sociodemographic characteristics and psychiatric diagnoses. A regression discontinuity design was applied to study the increase in parental leave duration after 26 March 1984. We included women who had given birth between 1 January 1981 and 31 December 1987. Our outcome was a first psychiatric diagnosis following the child's birth, ascertained as the first day of inpatient hospital admission for any psychiatric disorder. We presented cumulative incidences for the 30-year follow-up period and reported absolute risk differences between women eligible for the reform vs not, in 5-year intervals.
resultsIn all, 291 152 women were followed up until 2017, death, emigration or date of first psychiatric diagnosis. The median follow-up time was 29.99 years, corresponding to 10 277 547 person-years at risk. The cumulative incidence of psychiatric diagnoses at 30 years of follow-up was 59.5 (95% CI: 57.4 to 61.6) per 1000 women in the ineligible group and 57.5 (95% CI: 55.6 to 59.4) in the eligible group. Eligible women took on average 32.85 additional days of parental leave (95% CI: 29.20 to 36.49) and had a lower probability of having a psychiatric diagnosis within 5 years [risk difference (RD): 2.4 fewer diagnoses per 1000 women, 95% CI: 1.5 to 3.2] and up to 20 years after the birth (RD: 2.3, 95% CI: 0.4 to 4.2). In subgroup analyses, the risk reduction was concentrated among low-educated, low-income and single women.
conclusionsLonger parental leave may confer mental health benefits to women, in particular to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
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