Workplace intervention among pregnant hospital employees – A protocol of a cluster randomized trial.

• Sick leave during pregnancy is frequent. • Sick leave during pregnancy is associated with working conditions. • Reasons for sick leave are discomfort such as nausea, Braxton Hicks, Low back and pelvic pain. • The literature lacks knowledge on the effect of interventions with-in the workplace. Sick leave during pregnancy is frequent and 36 % of Danish pregnant employees are on sick leave > 14 days. Health care professionals are considered a risk population. This intervention applies preventive sessions including the pregnant employee, her manager and a midwife in addition to usual practice at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark (AUH). It is hypothesised that pregnant employees who participate in preventive sessions will have less sick leave and report better wellbeing compared to the reference group. All departments at AUH are cluster randomized. A total of 25 and 24 departments are allocated to the intervention and reference group, respectively. The intervention is protocolled with preventive sessions in addition to usual practice. The reference group receives usual practice. The primary outcome is mean number of days on sick leave during pregnancy. Secondary outcomes are wellbeing measured as physical and mental health, general work ability, work-life balance, manager support, and completed work adjustments during pregnancy. Data on sick leave will be collected from the hospital payment system and survey data will be collected at inclusion and follow-up. This study will contribute to limited experimental research aimed to reduce sickness leave during pregnancy. The overall strength is the study design with easy access to study participants within a large hospital. The main limitation of the study is the high complexity of the study. The trial is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov with ID number 29-2019-03. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]