title: Influence of minor children and contribution to household income on work hours of female dentists.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the association of having minor children and contribution to household income on weekly work hours of Iowa female dentists.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 28-question survey was mailed to all active Iowa dentists. This study represents female dentists who responded to the survey (n = 192; response rate = 63 percent). The dependent variable was whether dentists currently worked full- or part-time (≥ 32 versus <32 hours/week). The associations of having minor children and the percent women contributed toward their household income were then analyzed using stepwise logistic regression, controlling for covariates (alpha = 0.05).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the respondents, 14.6 percent worked part-time. Females who had no minor children (40.1 percent) were 3.1 times as likely to work full-time (P = 0.0353), and those who contributed >60 percent to household income (57.8 percent) were 3.0 times as likely to work full-time (P = 0.0129). The final regression model indicated that those who contributed >60 percent to household income (P = 0.0096) and had no leave of absence longer than 45 consecutive days within the prior 2 years (P = 0.0483) were more likely to work full-time compared with their counterparts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Iowa female dentists who provided more than 60 percent to household income and had not taken a leave of absence during the past 2 years were more likely to work full-time. The inclusion of leave of absence as a predictor variable negates any additional influence of the presence or absence of minor children in the regression model, indicating that these variables are highly correlated for this population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, University of Iowa College of Dentistry, Iowa City, IA, USA; Public Policy Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: Raymond A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kuthy
authors.forename: Adrienne D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: Michelle R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: McQuistan
authors.forename: Teresa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003815:Dentists; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007484:Iowa; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: dentist; family characteristics; female; income; leave of absence; part-time employment; survey; women's health; workforce