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Work Site Health Promotion
Across the United States, the workforce has become more diverse in gender, race, ethnicity, and religion. In particular, national data
indicate that women comprise 46% of the 137 million workers in the United States,
with their predicted number to rise as high as 48% by 2008. Blue collar
jobs, such as child care, clerical, or janitorial staff, consist of high
numbers of female workers. Distinctively, female workers are nearly twice as
likely to suffer from a stress-related illness as their male counterparts.
To explore the sources and effects of job stress on female blue-collar
workers Community Health and Program Services partnered with the Directors
of Health Promotion and Education (DHPE) to conduct focus groups with female
blue-collar workers throughout the United States. The objective of this
exploration was to—
- Gather information for use by employers and health agencies about
the sources and effects of job stress on female blue-collar workers.
- Offer recommendations for future occupational and health promotion
efforts for this population.
There remains a need to understand the factors that influence the health
status of female workers as well as how to design and market more effective
work site programs. With additional knowledge concerning this population,
future health and occupational programming goals may be more in line with
the practical needs and health concerns of these workers. By conducting
focus groups, this project can uncover a greater understanding of 1) the
sources of job stress; 2) contributing or enabling factors of job stress; 3)
the impact on quality of life; 4) ways females cope with their job stress;
and 5) programming needs/concerns.
The detailed results of this Work Site Health Project are highlighted in a
joint CDC-DHPE national report entitled the
Impact of Job Stress on
Female Blue Collar Workers* and in the
Journal of Women’s Health article Mind over Matter: Exploring Job Stress
among Female Blue-Collar Workers, available at
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/jwh.2006.15.1105 (
PDF–56k)
*Links to non-Federal organizations are provided solely as a
service to our users. Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization
by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is
not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found
at this link.
Page last modified: April 9, 2008
Content source: Division of Adult
and Community Health, National
Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion |
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