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 Previously, the same research team had linked longer working hours
with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, but only for those in
lower socioeconomic groups.
“This was not the case for stroke: the association between long
working hours and stroke was similar” at all socioeconomic levels,
said lead author Mika Kivimaki of University College London, in an
email.
The researchers pooled the data from 25 studies in Europe, the U.S.
and Australia that tracked more than 600,000 workers for seven to
eight years on average. Participants had no history of stroke or
coronary heart disease when they enrolled in the studies.
Over time, they had 4,768 heart attacks or heart disease events and
1,722 strokes.
As working hours got longer, stoke risk increased, the researchers
found. Working at least 55 hours per week increased stroke risk by
33 percent compared to working a standard full-time job 40 hours per
week, even when age, sex and socioeconomic status were accounted
for.
In real terms, however, stroke is rare in working populations,
Kivimaki point out. In this analysis, there were 4.5 strokes per
1,000 employees – and among those working long hours, the rate rose
to 6 strokes per 1,000 employees.
There was also an increase in heart disease risk, but the
association was weaker and the risk was smaller, the authors wrote
in The Lancet.
“Coronary heart disease and stroke share several risk factors,” but
some, like cardiac arrhythmia, are more strongly related to stroke,
Kivimaki said.
Jobs requiring long working hours can range from low to high-paying,
he said.
“Stroke is a multifactorial disease and therefore a person’s risk of
stroke is almost always the result of multiple interacting risk
factors,” Kivimaki said.
Keeping blood pressure, lipid levels and blood glucose within the
normal range, getting enough exercise, eating and drinking
healthfully, avoiding excess weight and excessive stress can all
reduce stroke risk, he said.
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“Even if an increased risk of 30 percent is rather low for an
individual, people should think of it,” said Urban Janlert of Umea
University in Sweden, who wrote an editorial about the new results.
“But the main problem is the public health aspect – even if the
individual risk is not alarming, the high number of people working
long hours means that in the whole population a huge number of
strokes will occur,” Janlert told Reuters Health by email.
If you have long working hours, recovery periods are important, he
said. Working long hours for two to three weeks is likely more
harmful than shorter periods.
“I hope that people become aware that long working hours are
associated with an increased risk of stroke,” Kivimaki said. “Those
who work long hours should be extra careful that they still maintain
a healthy lifestyle and ensure their blood pressure and lipid levels
are within the normal range.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1PAPBTP and http://bit.ly/1JwgYJu The Lancet,
online August 19, 2015.
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