Understanding the relationship of long working hours with health status and health-related behaviours (original) (raw)
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Long working hours and health status among employees in Europe: between-country differences
Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 2013
Working moderately long working hours was associated with poor health outcomes and a gradient was found. Differing gender patterns seem to be related to differences in the breadwinner family models by country typology. Occupational health strategies and policies should consider working long hours as a potential psychosocial hazard when doing so is somehow forced or imposed due to economic vulnerability.
The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, 2021
Background: Studies on the association between long working hours and health have captured only a narrow range of outcomes (mainly cardiometabolic diseases and depression) and no outcome-wide studies on this topic are available. To achieve wider scope of potential harm, we examined long working hours as a risk factor for a wide range of disease and mortality endpoints. Methods: The data of this multicohort study were from two population cohorts from Finland (primary analysis, n=59 599) and nine cohorts (replication analysis, n=44 262) from Sweden, Denmark, and the UK, all part of the Individual-participant Meta-analysis in Working Populations (IPD-Work) consortium. Baselineassessed long working hours (55 hours per week) were compared to standard working hours (35-40 h). Outcome measures with follow-up until age 65 years were 46 diseases that required hospital treatment or continuous pharmacotherapy, all-cause, and three cause-specific mortality endpoints, ascertained via linkage to national health and mortality registers. Findings: 2747 (4¢6%) participants in the primary cohorts and 3027 (6¢8%) in the replication cohorts worked long hours. After adjustment for age, sex, and socioeconomic status, working long hours was associated with increased risk of cardiovascular death (hazard ratio 1¢68; 95% confidence interval 1¢08-2¢61 in primary analysis and 1¢52; 0¢90-2¢58 in replication analysis), infections (1¢37; 1¢13-1¢67 and 1¢45; 1¢13-1¢87), diabetes (1¢18; 1¢01-1¢38 and 1¢41; 0¢98-2¢02), injuries (1¢22; 1¢00-1¢50 and 1¢18; 0¢98-1¢18) and musculoskeletal disorders (1¢15; 1¢06-1¢26 and 1¢13; 1¢00-1¢27). Working long hours was not associated with all-cause mortality. Interpretation: Follow-up of 50 health outcomes in four European countries suggests that working long hours is associated with an elevated risk of early cardiovascular death and hospital-treated infections before age
The effects of hours of work on health: A meta-analytic review
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 1997
A quantitative and qualitative review of existing literature on working hours and health was carried out. Meta-analyses were performed on 21 study samples. Results indicated small, but significant positive mean correlations between overall health symptoms, physiological and psychological health symptoms, and hours of work. Qualitative analysis of 12 other studies supported these findings ofa positive relationship between hours of work and ill-health. Different factors which may obscure the relationship between health and hours of work are discussed, together with other moderating influences. Taking these into account it is proposed that the results of the meta-analyses together with the qualitative analysis offer support for a link between hours of work and illhealth. Mann (1965) suggested over 30 years ago that 'hours of work have long been recognized as having a marked effect on the way an individual and his family lives'. Research investigating the relationship between work hours and health, produced findings which raised concern about the impact of long work hours on an individual's well-being. Buell & Breslow (1960), for example, found a higher incidence of coronary heart disease in men who worked over 48 hours per week. Thirty years later work hours and health are still an important issue. Due to increasing workloads, job insecurity, and pressures to perform, many individuals are working longer hours. Work overload, resulting in longer hours of work, has been linked with stress (Cooper, Davidson & Robinson, 1982), indefinite complaints (McCall, 1988) and fatigue (Ono, Watanabe, Kaneko, Matsumoto & Miyako (1991). Working long hours can overtire an individual mentally and physically. This, together with the prolonged exposure to any workplace stressors can obviously affect one's health. Aside from symptoms of ill-health, long working hours have been associated with poor lifestyle habits such as heavy smoking, inadequate diet, lack of exercise (e.g. Maruyama, Kohno & Morimoto, 1995). These behaviours, themselves, can lead to health problems. *Requests for reprints. 392 Kate Sparks et al. Although many countries in Europe have introduced reduced working times, a recent survey by Eurostat (the European Commission's statistical office) found that the UK is the only member state where the number of hours worked each week has increased over the past decade. Britain works on average 44.7 hours a week, the highest in Europe (Rubery, Smith & Fagan, 1995). Indeed, the European Commission, in the 1994 Employment in Europe survey, reported that almost half of the seven million male workers in the EU who work over 48 hours a week are employed in Britain. Working time trends in other European countries are between 30 and 40 hours a week. For example, employees in Germany work on average 36 hours per week, Italian workers 36-39 hours, and Belgian workers 38 hours per week (Wedderburn, 1996).
Frontiers in Public Health, 2022
Objectives: This study examined the gender and crosscountry differences in the relationship between working hours and self-assessed health among working men and women in Europe, and further explored the moderating role of sleep disturbance in the relationship. Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the 6th European Working Condition Survey on 14,603 men and 15,486 women across 30 countries in Europe. A multivariate logistic regression was applied to evaluate the relationship between working hours, sleep disturbance, and self-assessed health. In addition, we employed a two-stage multilevel logistic regression to assess the crosscountry variations in the relationship between working hours and self-assessed health. Results: The study showed a slightly U-shaped relationship between working hours and less-than-good self-assessed health among working adults in Europe (<31 h: aOR
Chronic Disease Risks From Exposure to Long-Hour Work Schedules Over a 32-Year Period
Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 2016
Objectives: This study aims at evaluating the chronic disease risk related to prolonged work in long-hour schedules for eight major chronic diseases: heart disease, non-skin cancer, arthritis, diabetes, chronic lung disease, asthma, chronic depression, and hypertension. Methods: The study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 covering 32 years of job history (1978 to 2009) for 7492 respondents. Logistic regression analyses were performed to test the relationship between average weekly work hours, and the reported prevalence of those conditions for each individual. Results: Regularly working long hours over 32 years was significantly associated with elevated risks of heart disease, non-skin cancer, arthritis, and diabetes. The observed risk was much larger among women than among men. Conclusions: Working long-hour schedules over many years increases the risk for some specific chronic diseases, especially for women.
Combining job and family demands and being healthy: What are the differences between men and women
European Journal of Public Health, 2004
Background: The objective of this study is to analyse gender inequalities in the combination of job and family life and their effect on health status and use of health care services. Methods: The data come from the Navarra Survey of Working Conditions (Spain, 1997) carried out on a sample of 2185 workers. The analysis was restricted to 881 men and 400 women, aged 25-64 years, who were married or cohabiting. Dependent variables were self-perceived health status, psychosomatic symptoms, and medical visits, all of them dichotomized. Independent variables were family demands and number of hours of paid work a week. The analysis was adjusted for age and occupational social class. Multivariate logistic regression models, separated by sex, were fitted in order to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Family demands were not associated with men's health whereas married women who lived in family units of more than three members had a higher risk of poor self-perceived health status (aOR=4.16; 95% CI: 1.37-12.65) and of psychosomatic symptoms (aOR=2.05; 95% CI: 1.12-3.75). Among women, working more than 40 hours a week was also associated with both health indicators and, additionally, with a higher probability of medical visits. Conclusion: In order to fully understand social determinants of workers' health, besides social class, gender inequalities in the distribution of family responsibilities should be considered.
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2010
Objectives: To evaluate (1) whether the physical and mental health of male workers differs from that of female workers, and, if so, whether (2) this is affected by the interplay between work and nonwork burden. Methods: We pooled two large Belgian databases (BELSTRESS III, SOMSTRESS) comprising data on 4810 (2847 women). Gender-specific logistic regressions were performed using a four-level variable as predictor. This combined two predictors: isolated job strain (isostrain) and home-work interference (HWI). Results: Male workers are at greater risk of chronic fatigue when they experience high isostrain but not high HWI. Although accumulated high isostrain and high HWI affect women mainly via chronic fatigue, the same pattern has a greater impact on men's perceived health. There was no difference for the other patterns. Conclusions: To improve workers' well-being, organizations should develop work and nonwork balance policies specific for men and women. D ifferences between men's and women's health are very well documented in literature. More particularly, women's greater physical and mental health is a rather consistent finding, which has been extensively approached in organizational psychology because of its implications in terms of lesser productivity and presence at work imputed to these workers. Despite the fact that results are not always univocal, scholars agree about the role played by several mediating variables such as age, ethnicity, education, working conditions, or domestic situation for explaining gender dissimilarities. 1 Within this line of research, the first purpose of the present article is to confirm, within a sample of Belgian workers, whether or not gender is associated to mental and physical health. The second and most central purpose is to verify the presence/absence of dissimilarity in men's and women's mental and physical health as a consequence of the interplay of work and nonwork strain. This is an essential issue to tackle with because if work and nonwork stressors are two significant sources of mental and physical health, their interplay could impact in a very different way men's and women's general distress because of their experience of work and private life domains. To investigate these two questions we make reference to sociological theory of stress. 2 According to this, stressors such as strain in work and private life lead to several outcomes, mainly behaviors and symptoms of physical and mental health. As long as it is important to consider multiple outcome measures, for the present study, anxiety
Lancet (London, England), 2015
Long working hours might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, but prospective evidence is scarce, imprecise, and mostly limited to coronary heart disease. We aimed to assess long working hours as a risk factor for incident coronary heart disease and stroke. We identified published studies through a systematic review of PubMed and Embase from inception to Aug 20, 2014. We obtained unpublished data for 20 cohort studies from the Individual-Participant-Data Meta-analysis in Working Populations (IPD-Work) Consortium and open-access data archives. We used cumulative random-effects meta-analysis to combine effect estimates from published and unpublished data. We included 25 studies from 24 cohorts in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The meta-analysis of coronary heart disease comprised data for 603 838 men and women who were free from coronary heart disease at baseline; the meta-analysis of stroke comprised data for 528 908 men and women who were free from stroke at baseline. Follo...
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Occupational Stressors and Resilience in Critical Occupations: The Role of Personality
Research in Occupational Stress and Well-being, 2011
Critical occupations refer to professions in which workers perform critical duties to protect and serve the public; the nature of these jobs often exposes workers to events and conditions that critically impact their mental and physical well-being. In addition to the traumatic experiences part and parcel to the job, characteristics of these critical occupationslong work hours, nonstandard schedules, dangerous tasks, and a physically demanding work environment -contribute additional stressors. Yet, many workers in these occupations thrive despite the risks. Given the stressful conditions of critical occupations and potential for adverse individual and familial outcomes, it is important to consider why individuals would choose to work in critical occupations, why they might respond differently during stressful work-related events, and why some workers are particularly resilient. We posit that personality research offers intriguing insights into career selection, coping, and resilience for 39 workers in critical occupations. Examining factors that reduce risk and promote resilience for these multiple-stressor occupations has the potential to inform research and policies that better meet the needs of employees and their families.
Long working hours and physical activity
Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2015
It is widely believed that persons employed in jobs demanding long working hours are at greater risk of physical inactivity than other workers, primarily because they have less leisure time available to undertake physical activity. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis using prospective data obtained from a nationally representative sample of employed persons. Longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (93 367 observations from 17 893 individuals) were used to estimate conditional fixed effects logistic regression models of the likelihood of moderate or vigorous physical exercise for at least 30 min, at least four times a week. No significant associations between long working hours and the incidence of healthy levels of physical activity were uncovered once other exogenous influences on activity levels were controlled for. The odds of men or women who usually work 60 or more hours per week exercising at healthy levels were 6% and...
Health and well-being of Nepalese migrant workers abroad
International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care
Purpose Although South Asia is a growing supplier of migrant labour, there is a paucity of research on the health and well-being of male Nepalese migrant workers. The purpose of this paper is to assess the health and mental well-being of Nepalese construction and factory workers employed in Malaysia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire administered, in and around Nepal’s international airport, to 403 migrants who had worked for over six months in their host countries. Logistic regression was used to investigate factors associated with self-reported health status and mental health symptoms. Findings Over 13 per cent reported poor or very poor health and nearly a quarter reported mental health issues. Whilst age and exercise were significantly associated with health status, poor work environments and perceived health risks were associated with both mental health issues and health status. Research limitations/implications The study is limited ...
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
In the ongoing attempt to prevent the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus and flatten the curve, governments and employers have encouraged (and in some cases required) workers to work at home. This sudden widespread shift to home-based teleworking was not anticipated. Consequently, the ability to make provisions to ensure the health and safety of workers was limited. Further, in many cases, the shift to working at home has been involuntary and likely to continue for an extended period. The study presented in this paper aimed to examine the health and well-being experiences in a sample of professional/managerial workers who were engaged in teleworking as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic situation developed. Data were collected from workers in the Australian construction industry who were required to work from home on alternate weeks to reduce the number of people in project offices. A multiwave survey was conducted at three construction projects. Longitudinal analysis of the data indicated a consistent gradual decline in the mental well-being of participants. The analysis identified a positive and significant relationship between work-life satisfaction and mental well-being and indicated that the effects of work hours, work pressure, work engagement, and work-life interference on mental well-being were mediated by the extent to which participants were satisfied with their work-life balance. Combining these results with qualitative comments made by participants helped to understand their varying experiences during the pandemic and the impact on their mental well-being. The results highlight the importance of considering work-life satisfaction and creating opportunities for improved work-family balance when designing teleworking arrangements. The paper contributes to knowledge and practice by providing the evidence that helps organizations to maximize the health benefits and reduce the risks associated with home-based working during (and potentially beyond) the pandemic.
BMC public health, 2018
The growing demand for labour flexibility has resulted in decreasing employment stability that could be associated with poor mental health status. Few studies have analysed the whole of the work force in considering this association since research on flexible forms of employment traditionally analyses employed and unemployed people separately. The gender division of work, and family characteristics related to employment situation, could modify its association with mental wellbeing. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between a continuum of employment stability and mental health taking into account gender and partner/marital status. We selected 6859 men and 5106 women currently salaried or unemployed from the 2006 Spanish National Health Survey. Employment stability was measured through a continuum from the highest stability among employed to lowest probability of finding a stable job among the long-term unemployed. Mental health was measured with the 12-item v...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Background: Research has shown that long work hours and overtime are associated with health impairment, including stress, burnout, and overall health. However, this has not been thoroughly assessed among stone, sand, and gravel mine workers. As such, this study examined whether significant differences in stress, burnout, and overall health existed among workers that worked different hours each week. Methods: ANOVA analyses were completed for the outcome variables (stress, burnout, and health status). Each analysis included three categorical independent variables: age, sex, and work hours. Age and sex were control variables. BMI was added to the health status analysis as an additional control variable. Results: There were significant differences between work hour groups for all three outcomes. Post hoc analyses determined that workers working >60 h/week had more stress, more burnout, and lower health. Differences were not found between age or sex. There were no differences in heal...
Who is at risk of irregular meal intake? Results from a population-based study
Journal of Public Health, 2011
Aim Irregular meal intakes have several harmful effects on health and yet it is largely unknown which factors are related to irregular meal intakes. In order to understand variations in regularity of meal intakes, associations between sociodemographics, health conditions, health behaviours, work characteristics and meal intakes were studied. Subject and methods Cross-sectional data of 2,395 men and 2,419 women (45-75 years) participating in the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, a population-based prospective cohort study in Germany, were analysed. Information on the regularity of breakfast, lunch and supper intake was obtained from a self-reported questionnaire. Multivariate ordinal regression models were run to estimate associations between sociodemographics, health conditions, health behaviours, work characteristics and meal intakes. Results Findings confirm an association between age [odds ratio (OR) 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95-0.97], number of household members (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.79-0.95), diabetes (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.50-0.84), fruit and vegetable consumption (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.54-0.73) and regular meal intakes. High body mass index (OR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01-1.06), being divorced, separated or widowed (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.17-2.10), smoking (OR 1.79, 95% CI 1.51-2.11) and daily working hours (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03-1.08) were related to irregular meal intakes. Conclusion These results indicate that indicators of social support such as number of household members or marital status, other health behaviours and work conditions influence the regularity of meal intakes rather than socioeconomic conditions per se.
Covid-19 Pandemic and its Effect on Residents’ Mental Well-Being
2021
Concerns about COVID-19’s long-term consequences on the mental health of frontline health professionals are mounting as the entire world strives anew to contain it. The primary objective of this research is to describe the impact of working during the COVID-19 pandemic on junior doctors’ mental health and to investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on junior doctors’ training and professional performance. A cross-sectional online survey using the Google Forms platform was conducted from May 1st to May 30th, 2021, in 311 healthcare workers who were currently enrolled in a residency program at the Kuwait Institutional of Medical Specialization (KIMS). Socio-demographic details of each health worker were collected and the scores related to depression, anxiety, and stress were measured using the previously validated depression anxiety stress scale-21 (DASS-21). Higher stress scores were seen in those who were devoid of the option to work with COVID-19 patients (adjusted β 5.1 (95...
The Effect of a Reduced Statutory Workweek on Familial Long-Term Care in Korea
Journal of aging and health, 2018
We examine how statutory workweeks affect workers' provision of long-term care for their non-coresident elderly parents. The Korean government reduced its statutory workweek from 44 to 40 hr, gradually from larger to smaller establishments, between 2004 and 2011. Using multiple regressions, we assess how the reduction affected visits, financial transfers, and in-kind transfers to parents. Annual longitudinal data come from the 2005 to 2013 waves of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study. The reduction caused an increase in the frequency of visits and in-kind transfers among male workers, with no significant impact on their financial transfers. Among female workers, we found no impact on any outcomes. We interpret the findings within the context of developed Asian countries with long work hours and Confucian traditions, and suggest regulating workweeks as a policy tool to encourage familial long-term care in the rapidly aging societies.
Long Working Hours and Job Quality in Europe: Gender and Welfare State Differences
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2018
Chronic extreme long working hours (LWH) have been found consistently associated with poor health status. However, the evidence for moderately LWH (41-60 h a week) is contradictory. Although poor job quality has been proposed as one of the mechanisms of this relationship, there are almost no studies about LWH and job quality. The objectives of this study were to analyze the association between moderately LWH and job quality in the EU27, as well as to examine differences by welfare regimes and gender. This is a cross-sectional study based on data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey. A subsample of employees from the EU27 aged 16-64 years who worked 30-60 h a week was selected (12,574 men and 8787 women). Overall, moderately LWH were not consistently associated with poor job quality except among women from Eastern European countries. Therefore, in the EU27 poor job quality does not seem to explain the relationship between moderately LWH and poor health status. The findings among women from Eastern European countries may be related to their weakened position in the labor market and to their work-family conflict resulting from a process of re-familisation that constrains their choices for a good job.
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Long working hours and cardiovascular mortality: a census-based cohort study
International Journal of Public Health
Objectives Long working hours have been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. However, results are inconsistent and large cohort studies are needed to confirm these findings. Methods We conducted a census-based cohort study including 11,903,540 Italian workers aged 20-64 years, registered in the 2011 census, with a 5-year follow-up (2012-2016). We estimated cause-specific hazard ratios (cHRs) through Cox regression models to quantify the association between long working hours and CVD mortality. Results Over 5 years of follow-up, 17,206 individuals died from CVD (15,262 men and 1944 women). Men working 55 or more hours per week had a cHR of 0.95 (95% confidence interval, CI 0.89-1.02) for all CVDs, while women showed a cHR of 1.19 (95% CI 0.95-1.49). Professional women working more than 55 h per week had a cHR of 1.98 (95% CI 0.87-4.52). Conclusions This study does not support an association between long working hours and CVD mortality among active Italian men, while it suggests a possible excess risk among women, although based on limited number of events.
The Effects of Working Hours on Health Status and Health Behaviors
2012
This study measures the effect of the amount of working hours on workers ’ health status and health behaviors. To deal with the endogeneity of the number of hours worked I use a quasi-experiment: the change in the legal maximum workweek hours in France enacted in 1998. The estimated effects, while moderate, are all consistent with the idea that less working hours improves health behaviors. In particular, this paper shows that a reduction of working time is associated with a drop in the probability of smoking, in alcohol consumption, and in physical inactivity. I do not find a direct effect of working time on health status measures (self-assessed health status and an index of vital risk), probably because I only capture shortrun effects. However, since health behaviors directly affect future health outcomes, we should expect a long run effect of the number of hours worked on individual’s health, through these changes on health behaviors.
Long Working Hours and the Risk of Chronic Disease
Social Change
A change in employment trends, in the nature of occupation and in the number of working hours has an impact on the diseases prevalent in people. Using data from a World Health Organization 2007 study on global ageing and adult health, this research looks at the effect of past work histories on the prevalence of selected chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke, angina and depression in India. By using a bivariate and multivariate analysis, this study shows that all the selected chronic diseases were significantly higher in urban areas, especially amongst people who were educated upto a higher secondary level and above and were from the richest wealth quintile. The chances of all these selected chronic diseases, except for depression, were also found to be significantly higher among those who were working in the non-manual sector. It was also found that the expected odds of having diabetes and stroke were significantly higher among those employees who worked for more t...
The Effect of Working Hours on Health
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017
We study this question in the context of a French reform which reduced the standard workweek from 39 to 35 hours, at constant earnings. Our empirical analysis exploits variation in the adoption of this shorter workweek across employers, which is mainly driven by institutional features of the reform and thus arguably exogenous to workers' health. Difference-in-differences and lagged dependent variable regressions reveal a positive effect of working hours on smoking and a negative effect on self-reported health. Results are robust to accounting for endogenous job mobility and differ by workers' occupations.
Working conditions and health behaviours among employed women and men: the Helsinki Health Study
Preventive Medicine, 2004
Background. Working conditions influence health, but previous studies on the associations between work-related factors and health behaviours are scarce. The aim of this study was to analyse whether unfavourable working conditions are associated with diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and smoking. Methods. The data derive from postal questionnaires collected in 2000 -2001 from 40-to 60-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki (n = 6243, response rate: 68%). Logistic regression analysis was used to examine health behaviours as outcomes. Job demands and job control, physically and mentally strenuous work, work fatigue, working overtime and satisfaction with work -home interface were independent variables, adjusted for age, education, occupational social class and marital status. Results. Most of the examined associations between working conditions and health behaviours were not statistically significant. Among women, mentally strenuous work and high job control were associated with a healthy diet. Work fatigue was associated with physical inactivity, whereas physically strenuous work and satisfaction with work -home interface were more often reported by physically active women. Work fatigue was associated with high drinking among men. Low job strain was reported by nonsmoking women, whereas working overtime was associated with nonsmoking among men. Conclusions. Working conditions were only weakly associated with health behaviours, and the associations varied for different health behaviours.
Work time control and mental health of workers working long hours: the role of gender and age
International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics : JOSE, 2012
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between work time control and mental health in workers working long hours. The study also attempted to show how that relationship depended on age and gender. Three hundred and six white-collar workers doing clerical work for over 8 h daily were diagnosed on work time control and mental health with the 28-item General Health Questionnaire. The results of an analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that participants working long hours but having high control over their work time had a significantly higher level of their mental health with regard to somatic complaints and anxiety and marginally higher with regard to social dysfunction than workers with low control over their work time. Male and female workers reported different problems with their mental health depending on what age (stage of life) they were at. It is hypothesized that the work-family conflict, inability to fulfil social commitments and poor working conditions can influe...
International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2011
Background It has often been suggested that high levels of overtime lead to adverse health outcomes. One mechanism that may account for this association is that working overtime leads to elevated levels of stress, which could affect worker's behavioral decisions or habits (such as smoking and lack of physical activity). In turn, this could lead to adverse health. Purpose The present study examined this reasoning in a prospective longitudinal design. Data from the prospective 2-year Study on Health at Work (N=649) were used to test our hypotheses. Methods Structural equation analysis was used to examine the relationships among overtime, beneficial (exercising, intake of fruit and vegetables) and risky (smoking and drinking) health behaviors, and health indicators (BMI and subjective health). Results Working overtime was longitudinally related with adverse subjective health, but not with body mass.
The impact of shift and night work on health
Applied Ergonomics, 1996
Shift work, in particular night work, can have a negative impact on health and well-being of workers as it can cause: (a) disturbances of the normal circadian rhythms of the psychophysiological functions, beginning with the sleep/wake cycle; (h) interferences with work performance and efftciency over the 24 hour span, with consequent errors and accidents; (c) difficulties iin maintaining the usual relationships both at family and social level, with consequent neg,ative influences on marital relations, care of children and social contacts; (d) deterioration of health that can he manifested in disturbances of sleeping and eating habits and, in the long run, in more severe disorders that deal prevalently with the gastrointestinal (colitis, gastroduodenitis and peptic ulcer), neuro-psychic (chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression) and, probably, cardiovascular (hypertension, ischemic heart diseases) functions. Besides, shift and night work may have more specific adverse effects on women's health both in relation to their particular hormonal and reproductive function, and their family roles. It has been estimated that a&bout 20% of all workers have to leave shift work in a very short time because of serious disturbances; those remaining in shift work show different levels of (mal)adaptation and (in)tolerance, that can become more or less manifest in different times, and with different intensity. In fact, the effects of such stress condition can vary widely among the shift workers in relation to many 'intervening variables' concerning both individual factors (e.g. age, personality traits, physiological characteristics), as well as working situations (e.g. work loads, shift schedules) and social conditions (e.g. number and age of children, housing, commuting).
Shift-work and cardiovascular disease: a population-based 22-year follow-up study
European Journal of Epidemiology, 2010
Studies on the association between shift-work and cardiovascular disease (CVD), in particular coronary heart disease (CHD), have given conflicting results. In this prospective population-based study we assessed the association of shift-work with three endpoints: CHD mortality, disability retirement due to CVD, and incident hypertension. A cohort of 20,142 adults (the Finnish Twin Cohort) was followed from 1982 to 2003. Type of working time (daytime/nighttime/shift-work) was assessed by questionnaires in 1975 (response rate 89%) and in 1981 (84%). Causes of death, information on disability retirement and hypertension medication were obtained from nationwide official registers. Cox proportional hazard models were used to obtain hazard ratios (HR) for each endpoint by type of working time. Adjustments were made for 14 socio-demographic and lifestyle covariates. 76.9% were daytime workers and 9.5% shift-workers both in 1975 and in 1981. During the follow-up, 857 deaths due to CHD, 721 disability retirements due to CVD, and 2,642 new cases of medicated hypertension were observed. However, HRs for shift-work were not significant (mortality HR men 1.09 and women 1.22; retirement 1.15 and 0.96; hypertension 1.15 and 0.98, respectively). The results were essentially similar after full adjustments for all covariates. Within twin pairs, no association between shift work and outcome was observed. Our results do not support an association between shift-work and cardiovascular morbidity.
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