[Health status of women at work: work risks and living conditions]

The increase of women at work calls for a new attention to a full health protection, besides the fertility and reproduction. Health Surveillance in workplaces can give much information about health state of women and men, when the evaluation takes into account physiological and social differences between the sexes. The study reports the health data from a working population, 675 women and 7991 men, employed in different work activities. The results showed no significant difference of health state between women and men, except a greater prevalence of the respiratory pathologies in men and psychosomatic disorders in women. Prevalence of muscle-skeletal diseases, psychosomatic disorders and recurring headache have been higher in married than in unmarried women. among married women, prevalence of pathologies have been related to number of children. No difference have been found between unmarried and married men, except a greater prevalence of psychic disorders in youngest. Results confirm the interaction between domestic and working load on health state of women. Under the same work conditions, women are subjected to a higher physical and mental load that reduces the endurance of strain and stress and increases the prevalence of some pathologies, as musculoskeletal chronic degenerative diseases and psychological disorders.