Quality of life, work ability and other important indicators of women's occupational health.
OBJECTIVE
Work ability may be considered as an important aspect of well-being and health status. One of the most important factors in association with work ability is health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this study has been to determine the association between work ability, individual characteristics and HRQoL of female workers.


METHODS
The design of this study has been cross-sectional. The work ability index (WAI) and Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-12) questionnaires were used to collect data. Three hundred and twenty female workers were selected from food supplier factories in Karaj. One-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, independent sample t-test and multiple linear regression methods were used to analyze data.


RESULTS
Mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) of the WAI stood at 35.02 and 5.57, respectively. The categories of the WAI for women being as follows: 8.8% poor, 62% moderate, 25.4% good and 3.7% excellent. Mean±SD for the physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) of quality of life was 58.84±11.12 and 57.45±9.94, respectively. There was a positive significant association between the PCS and MCS with the WAI (p = 0.0001). Workers with higher education had a better work ability (p = 0.002) and shift-work workers had a worse work ability (p = 0.03).


CONCLUSIONS
Work ability of majority of women was moderate. Considering mean age of studied women (27.6 years old), this work ability is not satisfactory. Physical and mental components of the HRQoL were the important factors associated with work ability.
Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Department of Community Medicine). negahtavakolifard@yahoo.com.
Negah
N
Tavakoli-Fard
Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Department of Occupational Medicine). alireza_mortazavi49@yahoo.com.
Seyed-Alireza
SA
Mortazavi
Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Department of Community Medicine). J-koohpayezadeh@sina.tums.ac.ir.
Jalil
J
Kuhpayehzadeh
Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Department of Community Medicine). mnojomi@iums.ac.ir.
Marzieh
M
Nojomi
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019649:Food Industry; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016387:Women's Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000078329:Workforce; D055815:Young Adult
Mental health; job satisfaction; quality of life; women workers; women’s health; work ability index