Working mums’ kids ‘more likely to get sick’

The children of working mums are more likely to be hospitalised, diagnosed with asthma and suffer from broken bones and poisoning, according to a US study.

The children of working mums are more likely to be hospitalised, diagnosed with asthma and suffer from broken bones and poisoning, according to a US study.

The study of 90,000 school-age children, led by Dr Sandler Morrill, Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics in North Carolina State University, found children of working mothers were three times more likely than average to have at least one overnight hospital stay. 
 
Dr Morrill says it might be that working mums are more likely to seek medical help early for less serious problems because of guilt. Another factor could be that the children were less closely supervised because of lack of time. She called for more support for working mothers.

The study did not look at dads’ employment because it was difficult to make comparisons due to the low numbers of stay-at-home dads.

The study is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Health Economics.

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