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. 2022 Jun 5;32(6):283-289.
doi: 10.2188/jea.JE20200382. Epub 2021 Jul 10.

Overtime Work and the Incidence of Long-term Sickness Absence Due to Mental Disorders: A Prospective Cohort Study

Yosuke Inoue  1 , Shuichiro Yamamoto  2 , Andrew Stickley  3 , Keisuke Kuwahara  1   4 , Toshiaki Miyamoto  5 , Tohru Nakagawa  2 , Toru Honda  2 , Teppei Imai  6 , Akiko Nishihara  7 , Isamu Kabe  8 , Tetsuya Mizoue  1 , Seitaro Dohi  9
Affiliations

Overtime Work and the Incidence of Long-term Sickness Absence Due to Mental Disorders: A Prospective Cohort Study

Yosuke Inoue et al. J Epidemiol. .

Abstract

Background: Although previous research has focused on the association between long working hours and several mental health outcomes, little is known about the association in relation to mental health-related sickness absence, which is a measure of productive loss. We aimed to investigate the association between overtime work and the incidence of long-term sickness absence (LTSA) due to mental disorders.

Methods: Data came from the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health Study (J-ECOH). A total of 47,422 subjects were followed-up in the period between April 2012 and March 2017. Information on LTSA was obtained via a study-specific registry. Baseline information was obtained at an annual health checkup in 2011; overtime working hours were categorized into <45; 45-79; 80-99; and ≥100 hours/month.

Results: During a total follow-up period of 211,443 person-years, 536 people took LTSA due to mental disorders. A Cox proportional hazards model showed that compared to those with less than 45 hours/month of overtime work, those with 45-79 hours/month were at a lower risk of LTSA due to mental health problems (hazard ratio [HR] 0.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.56-0.71) while those with overtime work of ≥100 hours/month had a 2.11 (95% CI, 1.12-3.98) times higher risk of LTSA due to mental health problems.

Conclusion: Engaging in excessive overtime work was linked with a higher risk of LTSA due to mental health problems while the lower risk observed among individuals working 45-79 hours/month of overtime work might have been due to a healthy worker effect.

Keywords: Asia; healthy workers effect; occupational health; prospective studies; workplace.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Kaplan-Meier Survival estimates for the association between overtime working hours and long-term sickness absence due to mental health problems
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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