地域の世話役女性集団の特徴

―夫婦の質問紙THIによる健康測定から―

抄録

Physical and mental health level of 70 married couple, whose wives worked as volunteers of maternal and child health or diet improvement projects in a village of Gunma prefecture, was measured using a health questionnaire, the Todai Health Index (THI), consisting of 12 scales and 2 discriminant values. As controlled group, 68 men and 68 women randomly sampled from the neighboring village were set up. Mean values of scale scores of mental instability and depression of volunteer group were statistically smaller than those of control women, and that of aggressiveness of volunteer group was larger than that of control women. Scale scores of digestive organ and aggressiveness of husbands are higher than those of wives, and the reverse tendencies were found in the scores of mental instability and irregularity of life. Significant correlations were found between volunteers and their husbands in the scales: impulsiveness, lie scale, mental instability, depression, and irregularity of life, which were also found in the other married couples. These relation was not recognized in the control group. From these results, health level of wives who were volunteers of health promotion project of a village are mentally better or active compared with that of the control group, but there was little difference in the interaction of mental health between volunteer spouse and the other general one.