Small Business insurer Hiscox USA recently released the results of their latest small business survey that highlights an increase in physical and mental ailments among small business owners, and in particular female small business owners, that I thought might interest you. Here are a few top-line results:

• Physical Ailments: Three quarters of female small business owners reported physical ailments as a result of stress at work, including lack of energy (33 percent), headaches (34 percent), back pain (29 percent) and anxious thoughts (30 percent).

• Causes of Stress: A combination of longer hours, fear and working harder to service new business has led almost one half (42%) of respondents to describe themselves as more stressed than one year ago.

• Workload: Fourteen percent of female small business owners work 11 hours or more daily, although the majority of entrepreneurs (52 percent) reported working between eight and 10 hours each day.

• Determined: The word the most female small business owners (53%) chose to describe themselves at work was “determined,” followed by “focused” (50%) and “flexible” (47%).

• Outlook: Despite increased stress, more than two-thirds feel mentally prepared to tackle the business challenges of the year ahead, which could be related to 61 percent giving priority to their physical health and 80 percent saying they try to manage a good work/life balance. Although only 12 percent believe the economy is already in recovery mode, 56 percent do expect their business to grow in the coming year and only 8 percent expect it to shrink.

A detailed PDF of the survey results can be found here, and the press release from Hiscox can also be found here.