Working mothers stay he althier and in better shape longer
Women who manage to reconcile children, work and partnership feel he althier in the long run and are less likely to be overweight. British researchers came to this conclusion on the basis of a cohort study by the Medical Research Council.
In this national he alth study, over 5,000 men and women - all born in 1946 - were interviewed at regular intervals throughout their lives about marital status and employment. However, the researchers around Anne McMunn from University College London only evaluated the data of the women involved and also asked the participants at the age of 54 about their current and previous state of he alth. They also collected the so-called Body Mass Index as a measure of overweight.
It turned out that the women in the triple role felt significantly he althier than single mothers or women without children. The all-rounders also fared better when it came to their physical stature: just under a quarter (23 percent) of them were overweight, compared to over a third (38 percent) of the housewives.
McMunn and her colleagues conclude from the surveys that he alth at a young age had no influence on English women's role decisions. The scientists emphasize that it was not only the physically resilient women who decided to live all three roles at the same time.
