Taking services to rural districts would help farm women deal with the stress that is causing them health problems.
A study done by two University of Regina researchers made several suggestions:
- Mobile health services such as the mammogram van.
- More use of nurse practitioners.
- Local centres to supply services such as health, counseling, child care, and job and educational courses.
- Making sure policy makers and health-care workers learn about farm issues.
“Farm women are often the ‘invisible partners’ contributing and maintaining the farm,” Wendee Kubik and Robert Moore said in their report.
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“This means researchers and policy makers often ignore them.”
Kubik and Moore mailed 3,000 questionnaires to farm women in 20 Saskatchewan rural municipalities last year and received 717 back, or 22 percent of the total.
Their findings show:
Personal
The average age of the women is 50 and 94 percent have children. Most are better educated than their husbands; 81 percent have their high school diploma and two-thirds have some form of additional education.
Farm ownership
A third of the women said their land is paid off while 36 percent said their debt is manageable. Twenty percent, generally younger women, report debt is unmanageable.
Off-farm paid work
Fifty-four percent work off the farm, most frequently as clerks, nurses or teachers, usually for 30 hours a week or less.
A quarter of the women said their farm could continue without their off-farm income, 29 percent said it could not, while 38 percent said their farm could continue without their money but only with difficulty.
A third of the women reported their husbands had off-farm work, generally in transport and petroleum. Forty-five percent of these women said they couldn’t survive without their spouse’s additional income.
Coping strategies
When women have conflicts or disagreements, they cope by trying to figure out how to deal with the situation and do something about it (41 percent); ask for help-talk to others (28 percent); withdraw (21 percent); exercise (16 percent); get angry (15 percent); and pray (10
percent).
Health
Fifty-five percent report their lives are “somewhat stressful” while 29 percent label their lives as “very stressful.” Half or more of the women said the stress is translated into sleep disturbances, lack of energy, headaches and backaches.
While most rated their physical health as good to excellent, 45 percent did report long-term health issues. The most frequent problems are back-neck-hip-leg-joint-arthritis (27 percent); blood pressure (11 percent) and allergies-asthma (seven percent).
When asked the best features of health care in their community, 61 percent said it is local access to doctors and services; 22 percent said it is the quality of care; and 19 percent said it is the care and dedication of the people in the health system.
When asked about the worst features, half said it is the lack of services in their community; 39 percent said it is the lack or loss of staff or overworked staff; 34 percent said long waiting lists; and 28 percent said it is the distance traveled to see a specialist or reach a hospital.
For more on the study see the following websites: www.cprc.ca or www.campioncollege.sk.ca/news/index/htm.
