Characteristics of firefighters at survey in 2017 with at least one live birth, stratified by employment and wildland firefighter status, n=934*
| Employment status | Wildland firefighter status† | ||||
| Volunteer n=116 | Career n=818 | Structural n=601 | Wildland/combination n=331 | Total n=934 | |
| Demographics | |||||
| Median (IQR) | |||||
| Age in 2017 | 37 (32–46) | 38 (34–45) | 41 (35–47) | 34 (34–38) | 38 (34–45) |
| Total pregnancies | 2 (2–4) | 2 (1–3) | 2 (2–3) | 1 (1–2) | 2 (1–3) |
| N (%) | |||||
| Race | |||||
| White | 109 (96) | 759 (94) | 548 (92) | 319 (97) | 868 (93) |
| Black | 0 | 18 (2) | 17 (3) | 1 (<1) | 18 (2) |
| Asian | 0 | 3 (<1) | 2 (<1) | 1 (<1) | 3 (<1) |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 1 (1) | 3 (<1) | 2 (<1) | 2 (1) | 4 (<1) |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 0 | 4 (<1) | 2 (<1) | 1 (<1) | 4 (<1) |
| Other | 4 (4) | 24 (3) | 22 (4) | 6 (2) | 28 (3) |
| Missing | 2 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 9 |
| Hispanic, Latina or Spanish | 4 (3) | 40 (5) | 35 (6) | 8 (2) | 44 (5) |
| Missing | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| BMI | |||||
| ≤ 24.9 kg/m2 | 34 (29) | 443 (54) | 218 (36) | 258 (78) | 477 (51) |
| 25–29.9 kg/m2 | 39 (34) | 256 (31) | 247 (41) | 47 (14) | 295 (32) |
| ≥ 30 kg/m2 | 43 (37) | 119 (15) | 136 (23) | 26 (8) | 162 (17) |
| Highest education completed | |||||
| Some college or less | 73 (63) | 488 (60) | 308 (51) | 252 (76) | 561 (60) |
| College and above | 43 (37) | 330 (40) | 293 (49) | 79 (24) | 373 (40) |
| Married or in partnership | 87 (75) | 667 (82) | 458 (76) | 295 (89) | 745 (81) |
| Household income | |||||
| >US$75 000 | 62 (54) | 532 (65) | 503 (84) | 90 (27) | 594 (64) |
| ≤US$75 000 | 53 (46) | 285 (35) | 96 (16) | 241 (73) | 338 (36) |
| Missing | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Smoking status | |||||
| Current | 14 (12) | 21 (3) | 31 (5) | 3 (1) | 35 (4) |
| Former | 34 (29) | 128 (16) | 135 (22) | 27 (8) | 162 (17) |
| Never | 68 (59) | 669 (82) | 435 (72) | 301 (91) | 737 (79) |
| Menopausal status | |||||
| Premenopausal | 76 (70) | 624 (78) | 418 (72) | 282 (87) | 700 (77) |
| Perimenopausal | 14 (13) | 82 (10) | 76 (13) | 19 (6) | 96 (11) |
| Postmenopausal | 19 (17) | 92 (12) | 88 (15) | 22 (7) | 111 (12) |
| Missing | 7 | 20 | 19 | 8 | 27 |
| Occupational factors in 2017 | |||||
| N (%) | |||||
| Employment status | |||||
| Volunteer | 116 (100) | – | 90 (15) | 26 (8) | 116 (12) |
| Career | – | 818 (100) | 511 (85) | 305 (92) | 818 (88) |
| Participate in wildland fire activity | |||||
| No (structural) | 90 (78) | 511 (63) | 601 (100) | – | 601 (64) |
| Yes (combination) | 23 (20) | 287 (35) | – | 310 (94) | 310 (33) |
| Yes (wildland) | 3 (3) | 18 (2) | – | 21 (6) | 21 (2) |
| Missing | 0 | 2 | – | – | 2 |
| Current rank | |||||
| Firefighter | 58 (50) | 310 (38) | 133 (22) | 234 (71) | 368 (39) |
| Firefighter/paramedic | 23 (20) | 187 (23) | 177 (29) | 33 (10) | 215 (23) |
| Driver operator | 4 (3) | 65 (8) | 53 (9) | 16 (5) | 69 (7) |
| Lieutenant | 7 (6) | 75 (9) | 69 (11) | 12 (4) | 82 (9) |
| Captain | 5 (4) | 88 (11) | 69 (11) | 24 (7) | 93 (10) |
| Chief | 11 (9) | 81 (9) | 74 (12) | 8 (2) | 82 (9) |
| Paramedic | 3 (3) | 3 (<1) | 6 (1) | 0 (0) | 6 (1) |
| Other | 5 (4) | 18 (2) | 20 (3) | 3 (1) | 23 (2) |
| Missing | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Shift schedule (career only) | |||||
| 24 hours or more on shift | – | 662 (81) | 384 (75) | 277 (91) | 662 (81) |
| Less than 24 hours on shift | – | 154 (19) | 125 (25) | 28 (9) | 154 (19) |
| Missing | – | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Department policy regarding pregnancy and/or maternity‡ | |||||
| Yes | 45 (39) | 644 (79) | 400 (67) | 287 (87) | 689 (74) |
| No | 55 (26) | 158 (19) | 177 (29) | 36 (11) | 213 (23) |
| Don’t know | 16 (14) | 16 (2) | 24 (4) | 8 (2) | 32 (3) |
| Occupational factors for most recent pregnancy | |||||
| Median (IQR) | |||||
| Age at pregnancy | 28 (26–33) | 32 (30–34) | 32 (28–35) | 32 (32–32) | 32 (29–34) |
| Years since most recent pregnancy | 8 (3–14) | 5 (2–12) | 8 (3–14) | 2 (2–7) | 6 (2–12) |
| Number of fire responses during pregnancy | 2 (0–4) | 3 (0–8) | 1 (0–3) | 8 (3-8) | 3 (0–8) |
| Missing | 8 | 19 | 18 | 9 | 27 |
| N (%) | |||||
| Work restricted during pregnancy | 67 (58) | 651 (80) | 426 (71) | 291 (88) | 718 (77) |
| Missing | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Time when work was restricted | |||||
| No restriction | 42 (39) | 161 (20) | 165 (28) | 37 (11) | 203 (22) |
| 3rd trimester | 7 (7) | 34 (4) | 31 (5) | 10 (3) | 41 (4) |
| 2nd trimester | 25 (23) | 396 (49) | 178 (30) | 243 (74) | 421 (46) |
| 1st trimester | 33 (31) | 217 (27) | 212 (36) | 37 (11) | 250 (27) |
| Missing | 9 | 10 | 15 | 4 | 19 |
| Work restricted by doctor§ | 24 (36) | 366 (56) | 155 (36) | 235 (81) | 390 (54) |
| Work restricted by department§ | 15 (23) | 286 (44) | 82 (20) | 218 (75) | 301 (42) |
| Work restricted by self§ | 35 (52) | 292 (45) | 273(64) | 54 (19) | 327 (46) |
Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. Frequencies are calculated excluding missing values.
Combination= does wildland firefighting in addition to working for a career or volunteer department.
*All data were collected at time of survey in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
†Two firefighters did not report a wildland firefighter status and are not included in these columns.
‡Firefighters were asked to report if their department had policies relating to pregnancy or maternity. Further information was not collected.
§Among firefighters who reported that they restricted their work during pregnancy (n=718).
BMI, body mass index.