Work satisfaction and physical health

Abstract

This analysis asks how satisfaction with one's main work role (whether that is a paid job or housework) is related to physical health. Data from a Detroit survey show that: (1) Dissatisfied people have poorer health status and take more curative health actions than do satisfied people. The dissatisfied people have higher health risks due to more smoking, drinking, and stress, and they also have health attitudes that encourage symptom perception. Poorer health explains why they take more curative actions; they actually have less faith in the value of medical care and restricted activity and less access to care than do satisfied people. (2) Work satisfaction is more important for nonemployed people than employed ones. Dissatisfied homemakers have especially numerous symptoms and high drug use. And dissatisfied, nonemployed men report a great deal of recent restricted activity and medical care. The data suggest that the homemakers focus on their day-to-day symptoms and try to relieve them by drugs; on the other hand, poor health has forced the men to quit work, and they are very unhappy about the situation. (3) Women (whether they are employed or homemakers) are more sensitive to work satisfaction than are employed men. Apparently employed men adjust better to job stresses and suffer few health consequences, whereas women cannot buffer their dissatisfactions as well. In summary, the Detroit data indicate that work satisfaction is related to good health for both sexes, and that being a dissatisfied homemaker poses especially high risks of poor health.