Abstract
Objective
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorders. Although studies have suggested relationships between ADHD in children and maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy, little is known about the effects of work-related mental stress. Considering the increasing number of pregnant women who continue to work during the gestation period, this study investigated whether work-related stress during pregnancy is related to offspring ADHD.
Methods
The Taiwan Birth Cohort Study followed selected representative mother–infant pairs in a face-to-face interview since a child was 6 months old. A total of 10,556 working pregnant women who completed follow-up 8 years later were included. Whether the 8-year-old child had ever received a diagnosis of ADHD were inquired. Self-reported job stress during pregnant period was obtained 6 months after delivery. Factors including perinatal and socioeconomic factors as well as the mother’s job conditions were further analyzed with logistic regression.
Results
Among those who continued working during pregnancy, 3850 (36.5%) mothers reported having job stress during pregnancy, and 210 (2.0%) of the children were diagnosed as having ADHD before 8 years of age. Compared with mothers who reported no job stress, the adjusted odds ratio of child ADHD was 1.91 (95% CI 1.21–3.07) for mothers with “very stressful” jobs during pregnancy and 1.53 (95% CI 1.04–2.25) for mothers with “rather stressful” jobs.
Conclusion
Among pregnant female workers, higher levels of job stress were related to the higher occurrence of ADHD in their children.
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Data availability
Data of this study are not publicity available as being a part of a broader project, which data are still analyzing. All data that support the findings of this study are included within the article.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all children and parents who participated in this study, the interviewers who supported data collection, and all of the study groups who participated in the TBCS. We also thank the Department of Medical Research at National Taiwan University Hospital for helpful discussions during manuscript preparation.
Funding
This work was supported by grants (N108-4278) from National Taiwan University Hospital.
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PS, CCH, TLC, PCC, YLG: substantial contribution to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, and interpretation of data. PS, YLG: drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content. PS, CCH, TLC, PCC, YLG: final approval of the version to be submitted. All authors contributed in making revisions, approved the final draft, and accepted the responsibility of the paper content.
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This TBCS study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Bureau of Health Promotion, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (No 94-C3-0940005257 and EC1020102-F). The study design has been reviewed and approved by IRB of National Taiwan University Hospital (No 202006049RINB).
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Shih, P., Huang, Cc., Chiang, Tl. et al. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among children related to maternal job stress during pregnancy in Taiwan: a prospective cohort study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 95, 1231–1241 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-021-01821-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-021-01821-9