Lone mothers: their health and lifestyle

Abstract

The number of families headed by lone mothers in Great Britain is increasing and many of these women and their children live in situations of socio-economic disadvantage. Much published work on this issue has concentrated on the health of children of lone parents. The recent interest in health and lifestyle surveys provides an opportunity to assess self- perceived health and lifestyle factors among lone mothers. This paper presents the results of such a survey in the Trent Region in 1992. The major findings are that lone mothers in this survey suffered more socio-economic disadvantage, were younger and had a higher prevalence of smoking than mothers living with partners. They perceived themselves to be less happy, more likely to be stressed by relationships, housing, money problems and sexual harassment. They also perceived themselves to have less access to practical and emotional support and felt that their health would be improved by employment, more money and a less stressful life. Such data may be useful at a local level for developing policies on health promotion and for lobbying members of healthy alliances to develop policies on housing and childcare which do not further disadvan tage such women and their children.

Comparison of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors between Single and Partnered Mothers: Data from the 2006 Health Survey of Adults and Children in Bermuda

“…There has been evidence suggesting a relationship between health, partner status, and motherhood; however this has only been identified in limited populations (13,14,(22)(23)(24). Mothers are an important construct of society as they have an effect on the health and development of their children (15)(16)(17).…”

“…Reeves and colleagues administered a postal questionnaire to 21,603 adults aged 16-70 years in the Trent Region of Great Britain (22). The questionnaire was comprised of closed-ended questions including: sociodemographic information, health-related behavior, self-perceived health status, stressors, social networks and perceptions of how health could be improved.…”

“…Additionally, single mothers perceived that having less stress would ultimately improve their health (22). Although the study did not investigate the dietary habits, chronic disease risk factors, and chronic disease incidence of mothers, it did find that lone mothers have lower perceived health status when compared to partnered mothers (22 Higgins and colleagues used a qualitative approach to explore heart health risk factors and perspectives in a group of low-income lone mothers (24).…”

“…Over 100 years ago, researchers established a correlation between marital status, parenthood and health status concluding that single parents have worse health than partnered parents (21). Studies suggest that single mothers are a high-risk population group that experiences lower physical and mental health status, particularly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden (13,14,(22)(23)(24). Single mothers are associated with more CVD risk factors (high blood pressure, low socioeconomic status, and low education level) when compared to partnered mothers in both the United States and Canada (13,14).…”

“…Family households not only impact the entire family, but single and two-parent households ultimately have an effect on the health and financial status of the parents. In particular, single mothers have worse self-perceived health status when compared to partnered mothers (22)(23)(24). Upon further examination of health status, single mothers are associated with more CVD risk factors when compared to partnered mothers in the U.S. and Canada (13,14).…”