Working women in weak health, reveals study

Mumbai’s female working population is a sizeable one and the occupational health problems they have to cope with are manifold. A study conducted by the Psychology Department of SNDT University, Churchgate, on Mumbai’s female workforce provides insights into the psychological problems they face. Dr H L Kaila, Head of the Psychology Department at SNDT, says, “Most of the health problems faced by the city’s working women, between the ages of 22 and 58, stem from their workplace.Psychosomatic problems like backaches, eye problems, fatigue, chest pain, loss of appetite and insomnia are a result of conditions surrounding them at work.�
Doctors say female executives and welfare personnel often face depression, anaemia, abortions, miscarriages and other gynaecological complications. Among women computer-users, a common psychosomatic problem is neckache or upper backache. This problem exists in different degrees, depending upon the computer exposure time.
Women’s behaviour in the workplace varies, depending upon their personal lives. The intensity of psychosomatic problems varied with their perceived workload. Added Dr Kaila, “Women who thought that the motivators were very low, perceived the maximum psychosomatic problems (PSP). This indicated that women who perceive high levels of support from co-workers, reveal less psychosomatic problems, and vice versa.�
Marriage and family support also seemed to influence their lives. The study confirmed that married women with high support at work, experience the least PSP; and unmarried women perceiving low support at work, reveal the maximum PSP. But women with familial support would have increased psychosomatic problems if their workload were high. Women with no children and low motivators at work experience more PSP than those with no children and perceiving high motivators at work. Also there is a significant effect of age and duration of marriage on the psychosomatic symptoms as well.