Married mothers who also hold jobs, despite having to juggle
career and home, enjoy (31) health than their underemployed
or childless peers. Data from a long-term study launched in the UK in 1946 shows
that such working moms are the (32) likely to be obese
(33) middle age and the most likely to report generally good
health. And this result cannot be explained simply (34) the
healthiest women take on the most. Epidemiologist Anne McMunn of
University College London drew more than 1,400 female (35)
from a study of 5,362 Britons born during the first week of March 1946.
Followed (36) their lives, including face-to-face interviews
at (37) 26, 36, 46 and 53, the women provided data from both
their own views of their health as well as (38) measures such
as body-mass index. By assessing both (39) and objective
information, the researchers hoped to discover (40) working
moms undertook such multitasking because of their inherent (41)
or achieved good health because of their multiple roles.
Of the 555 working mothers, only 23 percent proved obese (42)
age 53, compared to 38 percent of the 151 full-time homemakers,
(43) also averaged the highest body-mass index of all six
categories of (44) , rounded out by single working mothers,
the childless, multiply-married working moms and intermittently-employed married
mothers. In (45) , full-time homemakers reported the most
poor health, (46) by single mothers and the
childless. Of course, the data do not show (47)
working moms are healthiest but the women’s view of their own health
at 26 did not correlate (48) whether they undertook
(49) careers and families, seeming to discount a definitive role
for good health in determining a woman’s choices. Working correlated with low
body mass (50) all groups, including single moms and
childless women.