| dc.description.abstract | Today, the incorporation of women into the work force has changed the profile of health concerns of this population, extending it beyond the traditional gynecological/obstetrical framework. In order to describe the health problems of women in the context of their activities both inside and outside the home, a descriptive study was carried out using a four-part questionnaire (sociodemographic characteristics, domestic activities, renumerated activities, and the Cornell Medical Index) to identify similarities and differences among nurses, teachers, secretaries, and housewives living in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1989. The results showed that the working woman's schedule, defined as the time devoted to work both inside and outside the home, is very long in all the groups studied, amounting to a total of between 66 and 78 hours a week. The housewives spend an average of 70 hours a week on domestic tasks, while the nurses, teachers, and secretaries spend between 34 and 42 hours a week on such activities. With regard to work-related risks, occupational diseases were the most common complaint of all the groups, especially the teachers. On the other hand, housewives had the highest overall morbidity according to the Cornell Medical Index. These observations point out that different occupational health risks and morbidity indexes are associated with different activities performed by women, and it is suggested that these differences should be examined more fully through descriptive studies on women's health such as the one presented here. | |
