Sick leave and social benefits during pregnancy--a Swedish-Norwegian comparison.

Background. To analyze the correlation between sickness absence, working conditions, pregnancy outcomes and pregnancy associated social benefits in two urban pregnant populations in Sweden and Norway with different social benefit systems.Methods. Relevant information on 1649 delivered women was manually extracted by the authors from the antenatal care and delivery records as well as from the personal social security files kept in the Varnamo and Hamar communities, and then computerized in a depersonalized form.Results. The reproductive histories and the pregnancy outcomes appeared clinically similar in the two samples. Swedish pregnant women were significantly more often employed outside home (84 vs. 69 per cent). The types of occupations held were similar in Varnamo and Hamar. Swedish pregnant women were significantly more sick-listed during pregnancy than Norwegian women (64 vs. 32 per cent) and with a longer average duration of the sick-leave spells (61 days vs. 44 days). The sick-leave rate among Swed...