Long Work Hours Up Diabetes Risk

It’s another long day at the office, but you’ve convinced yourself everything needs to be done today before you go home. And yet even as you convince yourself of that necessity, you also realize tomorrow, and the day after that, and the week after that will be the same. Bad news when it comes to your health and wellness, and not just in terms of stress and potential burnout. We’re talking about diabetes.

A study involving both men and women evaluated the impact of work overload (hours per week) on diabetes risk. Researchers found that women who worked in excess of 45 hours per week, on average, had a significantly higher risk of type 2 diabetes than women who worked 35-40 hours per week. Men who worked 45-plus hours did not have an increased risk of diabetes, according to the study, suggesting this is an important women’s health issue.

Findings appear in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open Diabetes Research and Care, and researchers evaluated a large sample for more than a decade: 7,065 men and women workers over a 12-year period. Click here to learn more about other risk factors for type 2 diabetes and what you can to minimize your risk. But first, clock out and go home!