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The impact of working hours on pregnancy intention in childbearing-age women in Korea, the country with the world’s lowest fertility rate

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  • Taewook Kim

Abstract

This study aimed to assess factors affecting pregnancy intention among women of reproductive age in Korea. We analyzed data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES), a population-based survey that included 22,731 women aged 15–49. As age was associated with birth year and was found to be a confounding factor in the analysis of participants’ characteristics, we used propensity score matching to assess the characteristics of pregnant women compared with non-pregnant women of the same age and birth year. We also employed the XGBoost machine learning model to identify the most important factors related to pregnancy intentions. Our feature importance analysis showed that weekly working hours were the most significant factor affecting pregnancy intentions. Additionally, we performed cluster analysis and logistic regression models to determine optimal weekly working hours. Cluster analysis identified participants into three distinct groups based on their characteristics, indicating that the group with an average of 34.4±12.9 hours per week had the highest likelihood of becoming pregnant. Logistic regression was used to analyze the odds of pregnancy for every 5-hour increase in weekly working hours. The results of logistic regression indicated that women who worked between 35–45 hours per week had higher odds of pregnancy, with significant odds ratios of 2.009 (95% confidence interval: 1.581–2.547, p

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  • Taewook Kim, 2023. "The impact of working hours on pregnancy intention in childbearing-age women in Korea, the country with the world’s lowest fertility rate," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(7), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0288697
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288697
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    1. Leticia Molina-García & Manuel Hidalgo-Ruiz & Eva María Cocera-Ruíz & Esther Conde-Puertas & Miguel Delgado-Rodríguez & Juan Miguel Martínez-Galiano, 2019. "The delay of motherhood: Reasons, determinants, time used to achieve pregnancy, and maternal anxiety level," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Hye-Ryun Kang & Chris Rowley, 2005. "Women in Management in South Korea: Advancement or Retrenchment?," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 213-231, June.
    3. Joëlle Sleebos, 2003. "Low Fertility Rates in OECD Countries: Facts and Policy Responses," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 15, OECD Publishing.
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