Lengthy work hours can be bad for your health

The study, published in the English medical journal The Lancet, is the largest study so far that has looked at the relationship between the long hours spent at work and cardiovascular health.

Lengthy work hours have been shown in several previous studies to increase the risk for cardiovascular disease.

The researchers began with 85,494 men and women from Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Finland with no record of atrial fibrillation. They assessed working hours at the start, and then followed them for an average of 10 years, defining incidents of atrial fibrillation with medical records and death certificates.

It’s been established that too many hours in the office can increase the risk of a stroke. Now it seems that clocking up more than 55 hours a week means a 40% higher chance of developing an irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation (AF), when compared to those with a better work-life balance.

The study published in the English medical journal looked at published and unpublished data from over 600,000 people in the United States, Australia and throughout Europe and compared the cardiovascular health of those who worked typical hours (35-40 hours per week) with those who worked long hours (over 55 hours per week).

The researchers in this study found that the more hours worked in a week, the more the risk for stroke increased.

"When people spend more than 50 hours a week sitting down on a chair, obviously there's more physical inactivity," said Dr. Rafael Alexander Ortiz, Director of Interventional Neuroradiology and Stroke at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "At the same time, people that have more stress because of longer working hours, there's a correlation with increased alcohol consumption and potentially increased incidence of cigarette smoking." Ortiz was not involved in the study.

Longer work hours will often lead to reduced stress recovery and recreation and a decrease in the quantity and quality of sleep, which both lead to an increase in overall stress,” explains Rick Henriksen, M.D., M.P.P., director of the Primary Care Track and Family Medicine Clerkship at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

“Chronic stress without appropriate recovery can lead to an increase in the level of stress hormones, and therefore total body inflammation, which some surmise can lead to an increased risk of heart disease,” he says.

Atrial fibrillation has contributory factors, such as high blood pressure, being older, or having diabetes, and there is also a genetic predisposition. The researchers tried to control for changes in some of these co-existing factors over the 10 years of the study, but could not be sure of having done so. Neither did they look at different types of job, such as office-based as opposed to construction work or night shifts. In a long-running study of nurses’ health, night shifts have been linked with a 4% increase in strokes over five years.

You can modify some of the risks of atrial fibrillation – don’t smoke, don’t drink heavily, don’t get obese, and do exercise. But if it is possible, and in any way within your control, don’t work long hours. Presenteeism may please your boss, but it is not good for your heart.
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