Long work hours may hurt your health

Years of working long hours may help you climb the career ladder, but those hours may take a steep toll on your health -- and that's especially true for women, new research says.
"People who habitually put in a lot of long hours for many years, even decades, are really running an increased risk of potentially seeing chronic disease later in life," said study researcher Allard Dembe. He's a professor of health services management and policy at the College of Public Health at Ohio State University.
The link between long work hours and disease ''seems to be present a bit in men but is tremendously more evident in women," said Dembe. While the study cannot prove cause and effect, he said, the associations were strong in women. When the researchers compared men who worked more than 60 hours a week to those who worked 30 to 40, they found those who worked the longer hours had more than twice the risk of getting osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.
But men's risk for other chronic or serious diseases didn't go up substantially. In fact, those who worked 41 to 50 hours had a lower risk of heart disease, lung disease and depression, researchers noted.
But when the study compared women who worked 30 to 40 hours a week to those who worked more than 60 hours a week, women who worked more had substantially higher rates of disease. Women who worked 60 or more hours had more than three times the risk of heart disease, non-skin cancer and diabetes, nearly three times the risk of asthma, and nearly four times the risk of arthritis, the study showed.
The risks for women began to climb when they worked more than 40 hours and escalated above 50 hours. The gender differences were surprising, Dembe said, as was the strength of the increased risks he found for women.
    HealthDay

Long work hours may hurt your health

Years of working long hours may help you climb the career ladder, but those hours may take a steep toll on your health -- and thats especially true for women, new research says. People who habitually put in a lot of long hours for many years, even decades, are really running an increased risk of potentially seeing chronic disease later in life, said study researcher Allard Dembe. Hes a professor of health services management and policy at the College of Public Health at Ohio State University. The link between long work hours and disease seems to be present a bit in men but is tremendously more evident in women, said Dembe. While the study cannot prove cause and effect, he said, the associations were strong in women. When the researchers compared men who worked more than 60 hours a week to those who worked 30 to 40, they found those who worked the longer hours had more than twice the risk of getting osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. But mens risk for other chronic or serious diseases didnt go up substantially. In fact, those who worked 41 to 50 hours had a lower risk of heart disease, lung disease and depression, researchers noted. But when the study compared women who worked 30 to 40 hours a week to those who worked more than 60 hours a week, women who worked more had substantially higher rates of disease. Women who worked 60 or more hours had more than three times the risk of heart disease, non-skin cancer and diabetes, nearly three times the risk of asthma, and nearly four times the risk of arthritis, the study showed. The risks for women began to climb when they worked more than 40 hours and escalated above 50 hours. The gender differences were surprising, Dembe said, as was the strength of the increased risks he found for women. HealthDay