[Female mortality and occupational activity in France (a comparison, 1975-1982)]

The study of the relationship between occupation and health in 1975, indicated a high excess mortality among inactive females. The decline of mortality and the increase in the number of working women recorded recently, have not changed the thrust of the relation. The analysis of the 1982 data shows a rise in the excess mortality of inactives, caused by an increase of the selection effect. The study of the mortality taking into account the marital status shows that it is the transition to working status of many married--therefore preselected--women that has increased the differences in the state of health between active and inactive women. The excess mortality of inactive women varies with the cause of death and it appears that the selection effect is stronger when death is caused by a chronic or slowly developing disease, and weaker when it is due to an accident or a cancer.