Working long hours? Your health may suffer, studies suggest
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Working long hours takes a physical toll, increasing the risk of stroke and making it more difficult for women to get pregnant, recent studies suggest.
In the stroke study, researchers looked at 25 studies of more than 600,000 people in Europe, the United States and Australia. The Telegraph and the New York Times Well blog covered the results, which were published in the Lancet.
Those who worked 41 to 48 hours a week had a 10 percent higher risk of stroke than those who worked 35 to 40 hours. Those who worked 49 to 54 hours had a 27 percent higher risk, and those who worked 55 or more hours in a week had a 33 percent higher risk.
The study by epidemiology professor Mika Kivimaki of University College London found no differences based on socioeconomic status.
Cardiologist Tim Chico of the University of Sheffield told the Telegraph that those who can’t reduce their working hours could take other steps to improve their health. “Most of us could reduce the amount of time we spend sitting down, increase our physical activity and improve our diet while working, and this might be more important the more time we spend at work,” he said.
The pregnancy study followed 1,739 nurses who were trying to conceive, Reuters reports. Those who worked more than 40 hours a week took 20 percent longer to get pregnant than women who worked 21 to 40 hours.
