A Study of Perceived Health of Working Women: Role of Fatigue and Psychological Distress

Now-a-days, with the changing trends, particularly in the forces of urbanization, education and employment, women have begun to realize their capacities, and have taken a step forward in the industrialized world. Indian women particularly, are expected to be superwomen who, even while shouldering their responsibilities at homes as well as at the workplace, are supposed to live up to several people's expectation - be it their parents, in-laws, students, co-workers or the society at large. This takes a toll on their health due to role strain and role conflict. Thus, the burden on women due to multiple roles is a public health concern. Hence, there is a need to study health status of working women. According to OECD Health Data (2007), “Perceived health status refers to the percentage of the population, aged 15 or more years who report their health to be 'good' or 'better'." Reports of self-perceived health introduce a consumer's perspective and reveals aspects of health that may not become apparent with more traditional measures (EUPHIX, 2008). One variable which comes to limelight while considering the health status of working women is fatigue.Fatigue, is the state of feeling very tired, weary or sleepy resulting from insufficient sleep, prolonged mental or physical work, or extended periods of stress or anxiety. Fatigue has mainly been classified into mental fatigue and physical fatigue. Apart from fatigue, another variable which is crucial to health of working women is their level of psychological distress. Psychological distress is viewed as an emotional condition that involves negative views of the self, others and the environment, and is characterized by unpleasant subjective states, such as feeling tense, worried, and worthless. Fatigue and psychological distress share some relation with each other, and could have a deleterious effect on health. Therefore, the present investigation proposed to examine contribution of fatigue and psychological distress towards perceived health of working women. The sample for the present investigation comprised 75 married women aged 30-45 years (average age=37 years) coming from middle class families and working as school teachers in private/government schools of solan (H.P., India). The tools used were current perceived Heath Quastionnaire-42, Fatigue scale, and Psychological distress scale subscale of general well-being-20. Inter-correlations were computed, and stepwise multiple regression analyses were applied. Regression analysis revealed that mental fatigue explained 15% of the variance in perceived health, and an additional 11% of the variance was explained by psycological distress (over and above the contribution of mental fatigue). Hence, the results revealed that mental fatigue and psycological distress negatively predicted the health status of working women. The results also indicated that mental fatigue rather than physical fatigue is crusial to health. The results have been discussed in light of the collectivistic nature of the indian socio-cultural context, role strain hypothesis and role conflict in working women.