HEALTH WATCH : A Woman’s Place

A new study shows that women who work outside the home may enjoy better health than those who don’t. What about the popular image of women who enter the male-dominated workplace falling victim to ulcers or keeling over from heart attacks? As it turns out, more opportunities for women in the working world seem not to translate into more opportunities for poor health.

Researchers at UC San Diego tracked 242 white women in Rancho Bernardo, a San Diego suburb. About half of the subjects were employed. The study found that the working women had sharply lower cholesterol and blood sugar than their homemaker counterparts, as well as lower blood pressure and insulin levels. The working women had a healthier lifestyle--they drank and smoked less, weighed less and exercised more--than homemakers. The researchers say the results are likely to be the same for middle-and-upper-income women of any race.

The researchers can only speculate as to why working women seem to be healthier: Perhaps the greater income of working women gives them better access to health care, exercise programs and more nutritious food.

And it could be that working outside the home gives middle-and-upper-income women access to outside help and support, thus reducing stress.

But no one really knows, and this points up the need for more medical research on women. It continues to lag far behind medical research on men. That’s why so many questions about women’s health remain unanswered.