London: People in
low-status, poorly paid jobs who work 55 hours or more a week are 30 per cent
more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than
those putting in 35 to 40 hours, a new study has warned.
Mika Kivimaki, Professor of Epidemiology at University
College London, UK, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and
meta-analysis of published studies and unpublished individual-level data
examining the effects of long working hours on type 2 diabetes.
Analysis
of data from 4 published studies and 19 studies with unpublished data involving
22,2,120 men and women from the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia who were followed for an average of 7.6 years, found a
similar risk of developing type 2 diabetes in people working more than 55
hours a week compared to those putting in a normal 35 to 40 hour week.
However,
the researchers noted significant differences when the results were looked at more closely.
Further
analyses revealed that individuals doing low socioeconomic status jobs who
worked 55 hours or more per week had a roughly 30 per cent increased risk of
developing diabetes compared to their counterparts who
worked between 35 and 40 hours a week, even after taking into account health
behaviours such as smoking and physical activity, and other risk factors
including age, sex, and obesity.
This association remained strong even after excluding shift
work, which has been shown to increase the risk of obesity and developing type
2 diabetes.
Researchers
said further study is needed to identify the underlying mechanisms for the
association between long working hours and diabetes in people doing low
socioeconomic status jobs.
They
suggest a number of possible explanations, including working disruptive
schedules that leave little time to take part in health restoring behaviours
such as sleeping, unwinding, and exercise.
“The
pooling of all available studies on this topic allowed us to investigate the
association between working hours and diabetes risk with greater precision than
has been previously possible,” said Kivimaki.
“Although
working long hours is unlikely to increase diabetes risk in everyone, health
professionals should be aware that it is associated with a significantly
increased risk in people doing low socioeconomic status jobs,” Kivimaki said.
The
study was published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
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