title: Well-being and occupational roles among middle-aged women.
abstract: One purpose of the present study is to explore the stability of the pattern of health/work and sickness absence among middle-aged women over a period of three years. This study tested two hypotheses: (a) that enduringly healthy working women would perceive more valued occupational roles and higher well-being than long-term sick-listed women; (b) that high levels of well-being at baseline would predict enduring health and occupational role value at a 3-year follow-up. Middle-aged women (n = 208) answered a postal survey with the Role checklist, a well-being scale and questions about work and sickness situation. The results showed that there was a considerable variability in the pattern of health/work and sickness absence. The variability was greatest among the women who were long-term sick-listed at baseline, and the internal drop out was great among them. The results showed that the enduringly healthy women experienced a more valued worker role and higher well-being than the long-term sick-listed women. Furthermore, high levels of well-being concerning health and work predicted enduring health in the studied sample, and high well-being concerning work was predictive of a valued worker role. Interventions that enable women to develop valuable worker and leisure roles, as well as harmony between different roles, may be important constituents of health promotion/rehabilitation programmes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, Göteborg University, Sweden. carita.håkansson@fhs.gu.se
authors.forename: Carita
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Håkansson
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eklund
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lidfeldt
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nerbrand
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Samsioe
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Nilsson
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D016387:Women's Health