The aim of this study was to examine the health and nutritional status of low-income women in Upstate New York and to identify problems that interfere with their employment. Questionnaires on health and work, complete medical and employment histories, physical examination, laboratory tests, dental examination and diet recalls were obtained for 469 low-income women, mothers of at least one teen-age child. Among the major findings are the following: The greater the total number of current medical complaints that the women reported, the less likely they were to be employed. Among these complaints neurasthenic symptoms including tiredness, insomnia, headaches and nervousness together were significantly more common among the non-working groups. Physical and mental disabilities, documented by examination, were also associated with unemployment. Obesity was the most common nutritional problem encountered. Unemployment was related to obesity, and the incidence of unemployment rose directly with the degree of fatness. The association between unemployment and obesity could be explained as being due to the coexistence of diseases known to be complications of obesity, such as hypertensive heart disease and diabetes. Variables correlated with current welfare status (welfare dependency) included absence of an employed husband, disabilities arising in early life and the presence of chronic disease. The total number of years a woman had been employed since leaving school was related directly to education and job skills and inversely to the number of children and number of pregnancies. (Author/JM)