Table 4. Summary of Published and Current Evidence on Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Among Physicians.
| Source | Country | Specialty | Exposed | Comparator | Response rate, % | Direction of outcome | Covariates | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maternal | Perinatal | |||||||
| Survey studies | ||||||||
| Klebanoff et al,11 1990 | US | All | Women residents (n = 989) | Partners of male residents (n = 1239) | 86 | Increased HTN disorders and preterm labor | No significant difference in SGA, or preterm birth; stillbirth | Age, parity, height, weight, ethnicity |
| Osborn et al,12 1990 | US | All | Women residents (n = 92) | Partners of male residents (n = 144) | 57 | No significant difference in HTN disorders; increased preterm labor | No significant difference in preterm birth or stillbirth | None |
| Pinhas-Hamiel et al,13 1999 | Israel | All | Women physicians (n = 207) | General population (NR) | 52 | No significant difference in HTN disorders | Increased preterm birth and stillbirth | None |
| Gabbe et al,3 2003 | US | Obstetrics/gynecology | Women residents (n = 302) | Partners of male residents (n = 274) | 96 | Increased HTN disorders and preterm labor | Increased SGA; no significant difference in stillbirth | None |
| Lerner et al,352009 | US | Urology | Women surgeons (n = 243) | General population (NR) | 69 | Increased pregnancy complications composite | NR | None |
| Hamilton and Tulandi,362012 | US | Surgery | Women surgeons (n = 1021) | General population (NR) | NR | NR | Increased preterm birth | NR |
| Behbehani et al,14 2015 | Canada | Family medicine | Women residents (n = 238) | General population (n = 3767) | NR | Increased HTN disorders; no significant difference in preterm labor | Increased SGA | None |
| Rangel et al,16 2021 | US | Surgery | Women surgeons (n = 692) | Partners of male surgeons (n = 158) | NR | Increased pregnancy complications composite | NR | Age, race and ethnicity, hours worked per week, multiple gestation, IVF use |
| Cohort studies | ||||||||
| Heinonen and Saarikoski,17 2002 | Finland | All | Women physicians (n = 331) | General population (n = 21 997) | NA | Decreased HTN disorders | No significant difference in SGA, preterm birth, and stillbirth | Age, marital status, smoking, obesity, infertility treatment, prior terminations |
| Quansah et al,18 2009 | Finland | All | Women physician pregnancies (n = 7642) | Upper white collar worker pregnancies (n = 124 606) | NA | NR | No significant difference in SGA, preterm birth, and stillbirth | Age, parity, smoking, marital status |
| Current | Canada | All | Women physician pregnancies (n = 10 489) | High-income nonphysician pregnancies (n = 298 638) | NA | No significant difference in SMM; decreased HTN disorders | Decreased SNM, no significant difference in preterm birth, and increased SGA | Age at delivery, year of delivery, immigration status, comorbidities, prepregnancy hypertension, prepregnancy diabetes, previous births, multiple status, mode of delivery |
Abbreviations: HTN, hypertensive; IVF, in vitro fertilization; NA, not applicable; NR, not reported; SGA, small for gestational age birth weight; SMM, severe maternal morbidity; SNM, severe neonatal morbidity.