Health promotion activities among working and non-working adult women

Self report measures of health promotion activities and demographic variables of working women and housewives were analyzed. A sample of 516 female clients (283 of housewives and 233 of working women) were chosen from nine different out patient clinics offering health services to women in Tanta city. Three structured questionnaire sheets were used, namely: (1) Health promoting life style questionnaire (HPLQ), (2) Health value scale (HVS), and (3) self-efficacy. The results showed that a minority of housewives and working women groups correctly tended to practice more health promotion activities. However, the total mean scores of working women were slightly higher ( 362.03 +/- 33.55 out of 522) than that among housewives group (332.77 +/- 31.18). Multiple regression analysis indicated a significant correlation between women scores regarding most of the studied items related to self reported health promotion activities and demographic variables. Higher education (p = 0.004), family income (p = 0.005), and duration of marriage (p = 0.031) were associated significantly with working women who sought more health promotion activities, while education (p = 0.003) and family income (p = 0.028) were associated significantly with housewives group. Finally, the present study proved that work of women (p = 0.000) significantly related to the practice of health promotion behaviors.