[Working women and health of 4 groups of women in Guadalajara, Mexico]. / El trabajo femenino y la salud de cuatro grupos de mujeres en Guadalajara, México.

Today, the incorporation of women into the work force has changed the profile of health concerns of this population, extending it beyond the traditional gynecological/obstetrical framework. In order to describe the health problems of women in the context of their activities both inside and outside the home, a descriptive study was carried out using a four-part questionnaire (sociodemographic characteristics, domestic activities, renumerated activities, and the Cornell Medical Index) to identify similarities and differences among nurses, teachers, secretaries, and housewives living in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1989. The results showed that the working woman's schedule, defined as the time devoted to work both inside and outside the home, is very long in all the groups studied, amounting to a total of between 66 and 78 hours a week. The housewives spend an average of 70 hours a week on domestic tasks, while the nurses, teachers, and secretaries spend between 34 and 42 hours a week on such activities. With regard to work-related risks, occupational diseases were the most common complaint of all the groups, especially the teachers. On the other hand, housewives had the highest overall morbidity according to the Cornell Medical Index. These observations point out that different occupational health risks and morbidity indexes are associated with different activities performed by women, and it is suggested that these differences should be examined more fully through descriptive studies on women's health such as the one presented here.

[The geographical distribution of women's health problems in Jalisco, Mexico]. / Distribución espacial de la problemática de salud de la mujer en Jalisco, México.

The epidemiological studies on women's health, with relation to their geographical distribution (rural and urban), have focused on the areas of fertility and family planning. This work attempts to open up, to a worldwide level of comprehension, the perspectives of the problems related to women's health. It show the results of an investigation of two population groups of women, one in the rural zone, and the other in the urban zone; both groups were from the state of Jalisco, Mexico. The objectives were: to identify the more frequent health problems occurring in women and to establish the similarities and differences between these two female groups. The information was obtained by means of unique interviews using questionnaires. Sociodemographic variables, housing, and sanitation were studied, as well as a health questionnaire which was divided into apparatus and systems. Better sanitary conditions and more favorable sociodemographic indicators were found among women in the urban zone as opposed to those in the rural zone. The most frequent health problems are, in decreasing order, those located in the nervous, digestive, cardiovascular, and genital-urinary systems. There exists a direct relationship between the frequency of health problems and age. Generally, the women most affected are those in the rural zone. It is difficult to establish comparisons with the health conditions of women in other areas due to lack of research that makes differentiations with regard to sex (in this case, those focusing on women). We consider it of interest to continue with insightful investigations of chronic, degenerative, and deficiency problems, as well as those related to self-attention.