RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Firefighter occupational factors and the risk of preterm birth: results from a survey of women firefighters in the USA JF Occupational and Environmental Medicine JO Occup Environ Med FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP 77 OP 85 DO 10.1136/oemed-2022-108332 VO 80 IS 2 A1 Alesia M Jung A1 Sara A Jahnke A1 Leslie K Dennis A1 Melanie L Bell A1 Jefferey L Burgess A1 Leslie V Farland YR 2023 UL http://oem.bmj.com/content/80/2/77.abstract AB Objectives Previous research has suggested that women firefighters may have a greater risk of adverse reproductive outcomes compared with non-firefighting women. In this study, we investigated the association between firefighter occupational factors and risk of preterm birth.Methods This cross-sectional analysis of US firefighters surveyed in 2017 compared preterm birth among firefighters to non-firefighters using age-at-pregnancy-standardised prevalence ratios. Generalised estimating equations estimated relative risks and 95% CIs between firefighter occupational factors (career or volunteer, wildland status, shift schedule, fire responses, work restriction) and preterm birth risk. We adjusted for age-at-pregnancy, education, gravidity, BMI, and smoking and considered effect modification by age-at-pregnancy and career versus volunteer status.Results Among 934 women who reported 1356 live births, 12% were preterm (n=161). Preterm birth prevalence among firefighters was 1.41 times greater than non-firefighters (95% CI 1.18 to 1.68). Among wildland and combination wildland/structural firefighters, volunteers had 2.82 times the risk of preterm birth (95% CI 1.19 to 6.67) compared with career firefighters. Firefighters who started restricting their work in the 2nd trimester had a nonsignificant 0.67 times lower risk of preterm birth than those who started in the 3rd trimester or did not restrict work at all (95% CI 0.43 to 1.03).Conclusions Firefighters may have greater risk of preterm birth than non-firefighters, which could be influenced by roles in the fire service and work restrictions taken.Data are available on reasonable request. The data generated or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to restrictions based on the consent forms and IRB application for this study but are available from the authors on reasonable request.