gms | German Medical Science

Background: The subject of “women’s health” in the context of combining professional life with family life in the various phases of a professional career has hardly been examined to date. Among other matters, it has not been possible to explain the different factors influencing the health perception of working and non-working mothers, e.g. with regard to empowerment and resilience [1]. That is why an analysis of the factors influencing the health of women with children based on the requirement resources model by Becker et al. might possibly fill this gap in health research [2]. This model assumes that, on the one hand, there are internal and external requirements that affect the individual and that, on the other hand, this person has internal and external resources at their disposal [1]. In the interaction of these two approaches, health emerges [3].

Aim: Our intention is to develop an online questionnaire for a quantitative cross-sectional study based on validated standard tools for measuring the health of mothers, taking the compatibility of profession and family into particular consideration.

Methods: To design the tools various databases and test libraries (e.g. Hogrefe) were searched using the following keywords and expressions in different combinations: “physical health”, “mental health”, “mothers’ health”, “women’s health”, “compatibility of profession and family”, “stress”, “demands” and “resource”. After reviewing the titles and abstracts of the test procedures, 58 suitable instruments were identified which, in the next step, were examined in more detail with regard to their dimensions and subscales. Furthermore, the validity, reliability and objectivity of the measurement methods were examined for the selection of the instruments.

Results: Eight validated standard instruments were selected, using the FEW 16, the SF-1 and the WHOQOL-Bref scales to show the physical and mental health. With the help of SCI, both stress and coping strategies were recorded. In order to measure physical resilience, the resilience scale RS 13 was used and the feeling of coherence was displayed with SOC-L9. To present the possible influencing factors in professional and family life, we included the questionnaires on professional role quality (FRQ-B) and partnership role quality (FRQ-P). Finally, a questionnaire was developed for the survey on the basis of these eight thematically validated standard instruments, and supplemented with self-constructed theme blocks (e.g. demographic data, questions on health behavior and on time used).

Relevance: Against the Background: of its conceptual assumptions, the developed instrument fulfilled the methodological requirements for recording the health of mothers, giving consideration to the compatibility of profession and family.

Recommendations/Conclusions: The 1189 complete datasets and a final quota of 42.1% show the acceptance of the instrument, the special qualities of which can be seen in the complexity of the various individual circumstances of the mothers.

Ethical criteria and conflict of interests: The research was submitted to an ethics committee. The work was financed by third party funds from Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant number: FKZ: 01KX1113A and FKZ: 01KX1113B). There is no conflict of interest.

The PDF file of the poster submitted for the meeting is available in German as Attachment 1 [Attach. 1].