Table 2

Age-standardised prevalence ratios comparing preterm births among most recent live birth of firefighters with non-firefighting US populations

Observed eventsExpected eventsaSPR (95% CI)
Compared with US birth certificates*
 All firefighters (n=945)13192.81.41 (1.18 to 1.68)
 Employment status
  Career (n=828)10481.01.28 (1.05 to 1.56)
  Volunteer (n=117)2711.82.29 (1.51 to 3.34)
 Wildland firefighter status
 Wildland/combination (n=333)2332.90.72 (0.46 to 1.08)
 Structural (n=610)10760.61.77 (1.45 to 2.13)
Compared with US nurses from the Nurses’ Health Study II†
 All firefighters (N=934)12076.51.57 (1.30 to 1.88)
 Employment status
  Career (n=818)9467.01.40 (1.13 to 1.72)
  Volunteer (n=116)269.52.75 (1.80 to 4.03)
 Wildland firefighter status
  Wildland/combination (n=331)2226.80.82 (0.51 to 1.24)
  Structural (n=601)9749.51.96 (1.59 to 2.90)
  • Combination= does wildland firefighting in addition to working for a career or volunteer department.

  • *Martin et al 16 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_13-508.pdf) included 3 791 712 births (including multiple gestations) to women in the USA collected from registered birth certificates in 2018.

  • †Lawson et al 15 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18976732/) included 6977 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II who self-reported details about their most recent singleton live birth pregnancy while working as a nurse between 1993 and 2000.

  • aSPR, age-at-pregnancy standardised prevalence ratio.