[A study on subjective symptoms of fatigue in gainfully occupied couples]

The number of gainfully occupied couples has been increasing. A survey on the subjective symptoms of fatigue and on life and work was carried out on 996 personnel belonging to a university hospital in order to ascertain their fatigue pattern and the following results were obtained. 1. Both the husbands and wives showed II-dominant type (mental-work type, night-work type) among the three types classified by subjective symptoms. 2. When compared with the results of our previous survey, though T value was not so high, II/T value was high and III/T value was low in both groups of husbands and wives, suggesting a marked tendency of mental fatigue. 3. Difference in complaint rate of fatigue between pre- and post-work in the group of husbands was smaller than that in the group of wives, suggesting that the group of husbands is slower in recovery from fatigue after work. 4. The level of physical activity at work and the amount of physical work such as caring of children and housekeeping was higher in wives, while the husband's work is mental and the amount of physical work is relatively small. Thus, wives appear to recover faster from mental fatigue. It is considered that husbands need to improve their manner of spending their free time. 5. The results of regression analysis on the complaint rate in wives and husbands showed that there is a correlation between the complaint rate of wives and that of their husbands. Therefore, as a counter-measure to fatigue, improvement of life pattern outside of working time is important as well as that of work.