Table 1.
Published studies of adverse pregnancy outcomes comparing physicians versus non-physicians (1989–2019)
| Study | Region | Exposed | Comparator | Response rate (%) |
Relative direction of the outcome (exposed vs comparator) | |||||
| SA | Hypertensive disorders |
SGA | Preterm labour |
Preterm birth |
Stillbirth | |||||
| Cross-sectional surveys | ||||||||||
| Klebanoff, 199028 | USA | Women residents (n=989) |
Partners of male residents (n=1239) |
86 | ↔ | ↑ | ↔ | ↑ | ↔ | ↔ |
| Osborn, 199029 | USA | Women residents (n=92) |
Partners of male residents (n=144) |
57 | ↔ | ↔ | NR | ↑ | ↔ | ↔ |
| Pinhas-Hamiel, 199930 | Israel | Women physicians (n=207) |
General population (NR) | 52 | ↔ | ↔ | NR | NR | ↑ | ↑ |
| Gabbe, 200331 | USA | Women residents (n=302) |
Partners of male residents (n=274) |
96 | NR | ↑ | ↑ | ↑ | NR | ↔ |
| Behbehani, 201532 | Canada | Women residents (n=238) |
General population (n=3767) |
NR | ↑ | ↑ | ↑ | ↔ | NR | NR |
| Cohort studies | ||||||||||
| Miller, 198933 | USA | Women physicians (n=67) | General population (n=201) |
NA | NR | NR | NR | ↑ | ↑ | NR |
| Heinonen, 200234 | Finland | Women physicians (n=331) |
General population (n=21 997) |
NA | NR | ↓ | ↔ | NR | ↔ | ↔ |
| Quansah, 200935 | Finland | Women physicians (n=7642) |
Upper white collar workers (n=124 606) |
NA | NR | NR | ↔ | NR | ↔ | ↔ |
↔ no significant difference; ↑ increased risk; ↓ decreased risk.
NA, not applicable; NR, not reported; SA, spontaneous abortion; SGA, small for gestational age birth weight.