Health and working conditions among low-educated women

Abstract

In this thesis examinations of conditions at work and at home, and health in low-educated women have been measured by questionnaires, interviews, observations and direct measurements. The overall aim was to gain a deeper understanding of low-educated women's conditions at work and in the domestic sphere, and how this affects their health. The empirical basis was women and men working in the county of Östergötland. Four studies have been conducted. Each study has its own approach regarding methods and subjects.

The first study was a cross-sectional population-based study including 3,83 1 gainfully employed women and men. The aim was to study differences in health and exposures between women and men with the same length of education. In the second study women and men performing the same type of work tasks were compared regarding health outcomes and work technique. It was conducted at an industry and included 55 blue-collar workers. The third study was an intervention study that aimed to examine the physical and psychosocial working conditions among a group of female hot food distributors, and to relate their conditions to other women in traditionally heavy work within the same work unit, as well as to suggest improvements. The fourth and final study had an exploratory approach combined with questionnaire data and measurements of aerobic capacity.

The aim was to look for factors that are associated with self-rated good health outside the paid work in low-educated, gainfully employed, older women. The results of the studies can be summarised as follows:

Women with the same length of education as men are differently exposed; both in paid and unpaid work, due to the segregated labour market and the unequal distribution of domestic duties. Low-educated women reported worse health compared with low-educated men, especially regarding prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and compared with other women and men who had higher education. Men in all educational categories studied reported better health in all measured health indicators compared with women who had the same length of education.

Even when women and men performed the same type of work tasks, more women than men reported a higher prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms, especially in the shoulders. Besides differences in work technique, which can partly be explained due to the design of working heights and tools at the workplace, there were also differences in time spent on home and household work. The women spent significantly more time on household and maintenance work than the men.

Ergonomic measurement methods of physical working conditions and structured interviews to measure the psychosocial working conditions proved to be useful tools to detect the difficult working conditions for women in a typical female occupation. Organisational interventions that aimed to reduce and redistribute the physical and psychosocial workload showed to improve the working conditions for women who were exposed to great strain.

Being physically active is associated with self-rated good health in low-educated, gainfully employed women aged 45 to 64. However, recommended sufficient aerobic capacity does not need to have an association with self-rated good health for the same group.