Objective To explore whether occupational stress has an effect on embryonic arrest.

Methods With case-control study design, 110 women of child-bearing age with a history of embryonic arrest in recent one year who visited the Jining No.1 People's Hospital or the Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University from March 14 to June 11, 2014 were selected as the case group, while 130 normal pregnant women or those who had a normal labor within 7 days in the above two hospitals were selected as the control group. Their basic information and occupational stress level were investigated. Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, Job Content Questionnaire, and Chinese Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire were used to measure occupational stress. After excluding the subjects with missing data, the associations between occupational stress and embryonic arrest as well as potential influencing factors were analyzed by t-test, χ² test, and logistic regression analysis.

Results In the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, the scores of occupational stress and extrinsic effort in the case group were higher than those of the control group (t=6.139, t=5.808, both Ps < 0.05), and the score of reward was lower (t=-6.248, P < 0.05). The women with≥17 scores of intrinsic effort accounted for 31.8% in the case group, higher than the control group (4.6%) (χ²=31.127, P < 0.05). In the Job Content Questionnaire, the scores of job demand, autonomy, superior support, and social support were different between the two groups (t=3.355, t=-3.830, t=-4.802, t=-3.708, all Ps < 0.05). In the Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire, the score of work-family conflict in the case group was higher than that of the control group (t=5.697, P < 0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that the odd ratio of occupational stress and embryonic arrest was 8.838 (95%CI:2.169-36.017).

Conclusion Occupational stress might be a risk factor for embryonic arrest.