Work is good for your health?
Find a Conversation
| Mon, 05-15-2006 - 5:25am |
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=43421
Working Mothers Healthier Than Full-time Housewives
Main Category: Women's Health / OBGYN News
Article Date: 15 May 2006 - 1:00am (PDT)
According to new research carried out in Britain, working mothers enjoy better health than full-time housewives. Despite the stress working mothers face by holding down a job, dealing with childcare, housework and striving to keep the family happy.
It appears that working mothers, when compared to full-time housewives, are less likely to become overweight, have a better level of health and a healthier relationship. The study also found that single mothers experience worse health than working mothers who have a partner and children.
You can read about this study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Team leader, Dr. Anne McMunn, University College London, said that women who combine work with children and marriage do seem to have better health than full-time housewives. Even though they may experience high levels of stress sometimes.
It is not a question of chicken-and-egg either. Dr. McMunn said it is the experience of work plus having a family that brings on the better health, not the fact that only healthier mothers decide to carry on working.
The researchers examined data on women born in 1946 from the Medical Research Council's National Study of Health and Development. The data registers their health from 1946 until they are 54. Women's health was examined, with the help of a questionnaire at the ages of 26 through to 54. Every decade, the questionnaire collects data on each woman's work history, whether she is/was married, has children, her height and weight.
The healthiest women were the ones who had all three of the following:
-- A Partner
-- Children
-- A job
Those reporting the worst health were stay-at-home mothers, followed by childless women and single mothers.
38% of stay-at-home mothers were obese when they reached their 50s, for working mothers the percentage was 23%.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

Pages
Jennie
It would be fine with me if he came to the US. It would mean we had finally normalized relations with Cuba.
Like every other foreign leader who has ever come to the US, he would come neither as a tourist nor as a conqueror. He would come- as they all do- in his official capacity as the leader of a country and he would visit the White House and speak with the president- as they all do.
You are forgetting why we embargoed him in the first place. It was because he allied himself with the Soviet Union and threatened to turn Cuba into a very literal extension of the Soviet Union and a way for the Soviet Union to theoretically attack us without the Pacific Ocean in the way. But the Cuban Missile Crisis was over 40 years ago. And we have reasonable interactions with Russia now that the "Union" part went kerflooey. If we can be cordial with Russia, there is really no reason not to be just as cordial with Castro. You don't have to be on the same page as another country in order to have relations. We have relations with any number of countries which are not democracies and which repress their citizens: Saudi Arabia, China, etc. Not being a democracy has never been a dealbreaker when it came to foreign relations.
...and millions in this country don't have access to basic medical care, but hey as long as you don't have to wait for an MRI, then it's a great system.
PumpkinAngel
Karla
Community Moderator, iVillage.com
Jennie
Jennie
Oh, boy. This is depressing........
Mamma mia.
Pages