Women Who Work Long Hours Increase Chronic Health Problems

Long workweeks and abundant amounts of stress aren’t great for anyone’s health, but new research has discovered that workweeks of 40 hours or more can be especially bad for women. Gaining data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, researchers from The Ohio State University and Mayo Clinic followed the work and health histories of 7,492 men and women during the course of 32 years. For the study, researchers looked into eight different health problems. After analyzing the data, the researchers found that working long hours was significantly associated with elevated risks for four types of the chronic conditions: Heart disease risk was greater for people working 51 or more hours per week. Non-skin cancer risk was elevated for people working 51 plus hours per week. Arthritis and diabetes were also elevated. The study found that women were affected much more than men.