a comparison of mental health and life expectancy in employed and unemployed women of west azerbaijan

a comparison of mental health and life expectancy in employed and unemployed women of west azerbaijan mohammadi m*1, yavarian r2 , arefi m3 received: 25 april, 2010 accepted: 27 july, 2010 abstract: background & aims: nowadays, women's participation in society has increased. in spite of having a lot of responsibilities at home such as parenting and housekeeping, they work outside the home. mental health of woman has an important role in fulfilling the responsibilities. this study was aimed to investigate the mental health and life expectancy of employed and unemployed women. materials & methods: in this study, 397 employed women and 391 unemployed women were randomly selected from the west azarbaijan. then the women filled mental health and life expectancy questioner. result: results of t-test revealed that there is no significant difference between life expectancy, anxiety, and somatic symptoms of employed and unemployed women, but there is a significant difference between social function of employed and unemployed women. conclusion: according to the results, special attention must be given to the needs of women. keywords: life expectancy, mental health, employed and unemployed women address: physical education faculty, urmia university, urmia, iran tel: (+98) 09143430075 email: [email protected]