Skip Navigation
Skip to contents

JPMPH : Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health

OPEN ACCESS
SEARCH
Search

Articles

Page Path
HOME > J Prev Med Public Health > Volume 42(5); 2009 > Article
English Abstract Employment and Married Women's Health in Korea; Beneficial or Harmful?.
Il Ho Kim, Heeran Chun
Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health 2009;42(5):323-330
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.2009.42.5.323
  • 5,186 Views
  • 50 Download
  • 8 Crossref
  • 6 Scopus
1Center for Addiction and Mental Health, University of Toronto, Canada.
2Institute of Health and Enviroment, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. heeranchun@gmail.com
prev next

OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to investigate whether working married women in different occupational classes affected diverse health outcomes. METHODS: We used data for married women aged 25-59 (N=2,273) from the 2005 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. Outcome measures included physical/mental and subjective/objective indicators (self-rated poor health, chronic diseases, depression, and suicidal ideation from reported results; metabolic syndrome and dyslipidemia from health examination results). Age-standardized prevalence and logistic regression were employed to assess health status according to three types of working groups (housewives, married women in manual jobs, married women in non-manual jobs). Sociodemographic factors (age, numbers of children under 7, education, household income) and health behaviors (health examination, sleep, rest, exercise, smoking, drinking) and a psychological factor (stress) were considered as covariates. RESULTS: Non-manual married female workers in Korea showed better health status in all five health outcomes than housewives. The positive health effect for the non-manual group persisted in absolute (age-adjusted prevalence) and relative (odds ratio) measures, but multivariate analyses showed an insignificant association of the non-manual group with dyslipidemia. Manual female workers showed significantly higher age-adjusted prevalence of almost all health outcomes than housewives except chronic disease, but the associations disappeared after further adjustment for covariates regarding sleep, rest, and stress. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that examining the health impact of work on married women requires the consideration of occupational class.

Related articles

JPMPH : Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
TOP