Course and outcomes of pregnancy in women working in cold climate regions

Introduction. The causal association of infertility risk, complicated course and outcomes of pregnancy, as well as maternal, perinatal and neonatal mortality, with the lag-effects of cooling meteorological factors, is the least studied problem in occupational health. The national legal acts regulating occupational health issues do not classify the performance of labour operations in a low-temperature environment as work hazardous to reproductive health.

The purpose of the study. Based on an assessment of the likelihood of pregnancy complications in women engaged in labour operations in open areas or in unheated workrooms in cold climate regions, to develop recommendations for improving state regulation measures aimed at maintaining reproductive health and reducing reproductive losses in female workers employed in these regions.

Materials and methods. A questionnaire survey was conducted among two hundred forty six female workers of childbearing age performing labour operations in an open area or in unheated workrooms. As methods of statistical processing, conventional statistical methods were used using a personal computer with installed Microsoft software products (Microsoft Excel 2013) and application software (Statistica v.12).

Results. Performing labour operations in a cold environment is associated with a statistically significant higher prevalence of pregnancy complications in female workers engaged in cold season labour operations in open areas or unheated workrooms as long as from 1 to 3 hours, and especially more than 3 hours per work shift. Among the population living in the region of the Pechora coal basin, the risks of crisis phenomena in demographic development remain, which are mainly due to an increase in the frequency of pregnancy complications and, above all, due to high level of fetal and infant losses.

Conclusion. To solve one of the main tasks of national security to prevent further depopulation of the Arctic regions, in addition to socio-economic measures to preserve the population and increase the total fertility rate, it is necessary to improve the regulatory legal acts focused on the protection of the reproductive health of women working in a cold environment.

Limitations. The period of the study is from 2015 to 2019. The number of respondents was 246 women experienced one or more pregnancies when worked in the cold workplaces.

Compliance with ethical standards. The study was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov (protocol No. 10 dated November 7, 2018). Before the study, from each subject there was received written informed consent to participate in the study in 2 copies, one of which remained with the subject.

Contribution:
Borisova D.S. — concept and design of the study, collection and processing of materials, data analysis, writing the text of the article, editing;
Petrukhin N.N., Kovshov A.A. — processing of materials, data analysis;
Chashchin V.P., Nikanov A.A. — conceptualization, verification.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the article and approval of the article final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: April 28, 2023 / Accepted: June 7, 2023 / Published: October 9, 2023