ArticleOccupational and environmental medicine1998
Are long working hours and shiftwork risk factors for subfecundity? A study among couples from southern Thailand.
Article in Occupational and environmental medicine, 1998. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 58 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of psychosocial factors at work with fertility and menstrual disorders: A systematic review.Japan journal of nursing science : JJNS · 2025Pooled it
- The Effect of Shift Work on Urogenital Disease: a Systematic Review.Current urology reports · 2018Pooled it
- Physically demanding work and preterm delivery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2014Pooled it
- Family-building patterns of proceduralist and non-proceduralist physicians.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Article
- The association between sleep and fecundability: a Danish preconception cohort study.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Impact of night shift work on women's fertility, pregnancy and menopause.Frontiers in sleep · 2025Review
- The association between work hours, shift work, and job latitude with fecundability: A preconception cohort study.Journal of occupational health psychology · 2022Article
- The potential impacts of circadian rhythm disturbances on male fertility.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Review
- The Association Between Long Working Hours and Infertility.Safety and health at work · 2021Article
- Sleep and the Testis.Current opinion in endocrine and metabolic research · 2021Article
- Night Shift Work and Fecundability in Late Reproductive-Aged African American Women.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2021Article
- Adverse effects of circadian desynchrony on the male reproductive system: an epidemiological and experimental study.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
- Anti-Müllerian hormone levels in nurses working night shifts.Archives of environmental & occupational health · 2020Article
- A Clinical Perspective of Sleep and Andrological Health: Assessment, Treatment Considerations, and Future Research.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2019Review
- Female sleep patterns, shift work, and fecundability in a North American preconception cohort study.Fertility and sterility · 2019Article
- Occupational factors and markers of ovarian reserve and response among women at a fertility centre.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2017Article
- Work schedule and physical factors in relation to fecundity in nurses.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2015Article
- A Multi-Oscillatory Circadian System Times Female Reproduction.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2015Review
- Shift work and subfecundity: a causal link or an artefact?Occupational and environmental medicine · 2003Article
- Negative impacts of shiftwork and long work hours.Rehabilitation nursing : the official journal of the Association of Rehabilitation NursesReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate the effect of long working hours and shift work on time to pregnancy.
methodsCross sectional samples with retrospective data collection from two 700 bed hospitals at secondary to tertiary care level in Hatyai district, Songkhla Province, Thailand. The study was conducted from March 1995 to November 1995 among 1496 pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics. Subfecundity was defined as time to pregnancy longer than 7.8, 9.5, or 12 months (time to pregnancy was calculated from the date at which the couples started having sexual relations without any contraception until last menstrual date).
resultsThe descriptive analyses were restricted to 1201 planned pregnancies and the analytical part to 907 working women. Separate analyses on primigravid women were also done. Logistic regressions adjusted for age, education, body mass index, menstrual regularity, obstetric and medical history, coital frequency, and potential exposure to reproductive toxic agents, showed an odds ratio (OR) associated with female exposure to long working hours of 2.3 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.0 to 5.1) in primigravid and 1.6 (1.0 to 2.7) in all pregnant women. Male exposure to long working hours and shiftwork showed no association with subfecundity. The OR of subfecundity was highest when both partners worked > 70 hours a week irrespective of the cut off point used (OR 4.1 (95% CI 1.3 to 13.4) in primigravid women; OR 2.0 (95% CI 1.1 to 3.8) in all pregnant women).
conclusionsLong working hours is a risk factor for subfecundity especially for women. Shiftwork was not associated with subfecundity in this study.
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Registered trials
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