Associations between Presenteeism of Female Nurses Raising Children, Work and Family Working Hours of Couples, and Wife’s Role Satisfaction: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationship between Presenteeism of female nurses and the interaction between work and family working hours of couples and wife's level of satisfaction with her role in the division of roles at home. Responses were obtained from 421 couples (response rate: 35.6%). The subjects were 331 female nurses who were wives with children under 12 years of age, working in 20 hospitals in Japan, excluding those with invalid responses and those who met the exclusion criteria. An analysis of covariance was conducted with the wife's work impairment score (WIS) as the dependent variable, the interaction between the working hours of the couple at home and work, and the wife's level of satisfaction with her role in the division of roles at home as independent variables. Significant associations were found between wives' WIS and the interaction between hours of housework/childcare by wives and hours worked by husbands at work (p =.008), as well as between wife's level of satisfaction with her role in the division of roles at home (β = -.103, p =.007). In other words, wives' WIS was higher when their hours of housework and childcare exceeded a certain length and hours worked by the husband were shorter. Wives' WIS was also lower when the satisfaction level with her role was higher. The results suggest that family factors influence presenteeism among female nurses raising children with health problems.