Physical health of clerical workers in the U.S., Framingham, and Detroit

The Framingham Heart Study has reported high rates of coronary heart disease among clerical women, compared to other working women and housewives. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey, we find that U.S. clerical women have the best overall profile compared to other occupation groups. They have low injury and chronic limitation rates, little restricted activity, and average health services use. The Framingham clerical women worked mostly before 1960 when clerical work was devalued and the combination of job and family roles put great pressures on women; contemporary clerical women may have more job satisfactions and fewer pressures from multiple roles, and thus lower health risks. In contrast to women, clerical men have a poor health profile compared to other employed men. They have more recent hospitalization and job limitations from chronic conditions. This suggests that men with serious health problems take clerical jobs that are not physically demanding. A health survey of Detroit adults indicates that Detroit clerical men match the national profile, but Detroit clerical women do not. Both groups are dissatisfied with their jobs, compared to other workers. The Detroit data suggests that role pressures and dissatisfactions contribute to poor health, and that people with health problems (especially men) gravitate toward clerical jobs. We need to know more about how perceived role burdens, role dissatisfactions, and weak coping skills influence health.