Women working long hours at higher risk for diseases

It was found that the risk increases when women put in more than 40 hours and takes a decidedly bad turn above 50 hours.

‘Women, especially women who have to juggle multiple roles feel the effects of intensive work experiences and that can set the table for a variety of illnesses and disability,’ said Allard Dembe, professor of health services management and policy and lead author of the study that was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

‘People don’t think that much about how their early work experiences affect them down the road,’ he said. ‘Women in their 20s, 30s and 40s are setting themselves up for problems later in life.’

Men, on the other hand having tough work schedules fared much better, found the researchers, who analyzed data from interviews with almost 7,500 people who were part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

Women tend to take on the lion’s share of family responsibility and may face more pressure and stress than men when they work long hours, previous research shows. On top of that, work for women may be less satisfying because of the need to balance work demands with family obligations, Dembe said.

More scheduling flexibility and on-the-job health coaching, screening and support could go a long way toward reducing the chances employees become sick or die as a result of chronic conditions, he said.

The researchers analyzed the relationship between serious disease and hours worked over a 32-year period.

Previous research has shown that workers who put in long hours face more stress, have more sleep and digestive trouble and are more fatigued. Their work performance suffers and they have more injuries on the job.

But prior to this study, efforts to examine a connection between long hours and chronic illness have had mixed results, in large part because it’s difficult to obtain long-term data on work patterns and health, Dembe said.

The results among female workers were striking, Dembe said. The analysis found a clear and strong relationship between long hours and heart disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes.

Men who worked long hours had a higher incidence of arthritis, but none of the other chronic diseases.

And those men who worked moderately long hours (41 to 50 hours weekly) had lower risk of heart disease, lung disease and depression than those who worked 40 hours or fewer.

Because the data addresses chronic diseases reported by age 40 or 50, this study speaks only to early-onset disease and doesn’t shed light on the possible associations between long hours and lifetime risks, which could prove even more profound, Dembe said.

‘The early onset and identification of chronic diseases may not only reduce individuals’ life expectancy and quality of life, but also increase health care costs in the long term,’ Dembe and Yao wrote in the paper.

One limitation of the study is that it relies on average hours per week and doesn’t provide answers about the differences between those who consistently worked long hours and those whose careers were full of long hours at first but who found themselves with more free time later on, the researchers said.

It also does not address the potential differences between mandatory overtime and discretionary overtime.

‘It could make a difference,’ Dembe said. ‘You might still be working hard, but the fact that it’s your choice might help you stay healthier.’

More research needed…..

Meanwhile, employers and government regulators should be aware of the risks, especially in women who regularly work more than 40-hour work week. Companies benefit in terms of quality of work and medical costs when their workers are healthier!