Married mothers who also hold jobs, despite having to juggle career and home, enjoy{{U}} (31) {{/U}}health than their underemployed or childless peers. Data from a long-term study launched in the UK in 1946 shows that such working moms are the{{U}} (32) {{/U}}likely to be obese{{U}} (33) {{/U}}middle age and the most likely to report generally good health. And this result cannot be explained simply{{U}} (34) {{/U}}the healthiest women take on the most.
Epidemiologist Anne McMunn of University College London drew more than 1,400 female{{U}} (35) {{/U}} from a study of 5,362 Britons born during the first week of March 1946. Followed{{U}} (36) {{/U}}their lives, including face-to-face interviews at{{U}} (37) {{/U}}26, 36, 46 and 53, the women provided data from both their own views of their health as well as{{U}} (38) {{/U}}measures such as body-mass index. By assessing both{{U}} (39) {{/U}}and objective information, the researchers hoped to discover{{U}} (40) {{/U}} working moms undertook such multitasking because of their inherent{{U}} (41) {{/U}}or achieved good health because of their multiple roles.
Of the 555 working mothers, only 23 percent proved obese{{U}} (42) {{/U}}age 53, compared to 38 percent of the 151 full-time homemakers,{{U}} (43) {{/U}}also averaged the highest body-mass index of all six categories of{{U}} (44) {{/U}}, rounded out by single working mothers, the childless, multiply-married working moms and intermittently-employed married mothers. In{{U}} (45) {{/U}}, full-time homemakers reported the most poor health, {{U}}(46) {{/U}}by single mothers and the childless.
Of course, the data do not show{{U}} (47) {{/U}}working moms are healthiest but the women's view of their own health at 26 did not correlate{{U}} (48) {{/U}}whether they undertook{{U}} (49) {{/U}}careers and families, seeming to discount a definitive role for good health in determining a woman's choices. Working correlated with low body mass{{U}} (50) {{/U}}all groups, including single moms and childless women.