Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 19;19(18):11831.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191811831.

Long Working Hours and the Risk of Glucose Intolerance: A Cohort Study

Yesung Lee  1 , Eunhye Seo  1 , Woncheol Lee  1
Affiliations

Long Working Hours and the Risk of Glucose Intolerance: A Cohort Study

Yesung Lee et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Long working hours have negative effects on the health of workers. Several studies have reported the association between long working hours and both diabetes and prediabetes. Therefore, we aimed to examine the temporal relationship between long working hours and glucose intolerance. Our cohort study collected data from 25,803 healthy male participants at baseline. To evaluate the risk of incident glucose intolerance, we estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using the Cox proportional hazards regression analyses. During 77,605.0 person-years of follow-up, 6741 participants developed glucose intolerance. Multivariable-adjusted HRs (95% CI) for weekly working 41-52 and >52 h compared with working 35-40 h, were 1.28 (1.17-1.40) and 2.80 (2.54-3.09), respectively. In the dose-response analyses, long working hours had a nearly linear relationship with the development of glucose intolerance across most working hours per week. The association between long working hours and incident glucose intolerance was stronger in the younger-age subgroups than in the older-age subgroups (p for interaction <0.001). Our large-scale cohort study demonstrated that long working hours were associated with incident glucose intolerance, with a dose-response relationship.

Keywords: cohort studies; diabetes mellitus; glucose intolerance; long working hours; longitudinal studies; overwork.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study participants.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio for glucose intolerance with the restricted cubic spline (70 h; 95th percentile of weekly working hours).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Lee S.H., McCann D.M., Messenger J.C. Working Time Around the World: Trends in Working Hours, Laws and Policies in a Global Comparative Perspective. Volume 1. Routledge; London, UK: 2007. pp. 1–220.
    1. Pega F., Náfrádi B., Momen N.C., Ujita Y., Streicher K.N., Prüss-Üstün A.M., Descatha A., Driscoll T., Fischer F.M., Godderis L., et al. Global, regional, and national burdens of ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury. Environ. Int. 2021;154:106595. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106595. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pega F., Hamzaoui H., Náfrádi B., Momen N.C. Global, regional and national burden of disease attributable to 19 selected occupational risk factors for 183 countries, 2000–2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury. Scand. J. Work Environ. Health. 2022;48:158–168. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.4001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. OECD Hours Worked (Indicator) [(accessed on 2 August 2022)]. Available online: https://data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm.
    1. ILO How Did COVID-19 Impact Working Hours in Asia-Pacific Economies in 2020? [(accessed on 16 September 2022)]. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/asia/publications/WCMS_779273/lang--en/index.htm.