Increase in working hours can raise the risk of heart disease

14 September, 2012

Researchers says that more than eight hours work in a day can increase the risk of heart diseases by a whopping eighty percent. Long working hours can lead to heart attacks and strokes in thousands of employees.

WORKING HOURS is the time that an employee spends at his paid occupational labour, and the total working hours in a week should not exceed 48 hours. But a study conducted by The International Labor Organization (ILO) says that about 22 percent of the total working personnel, work for more than 48 hours a week. Developed countries with more work force are also putting more than 48 hours weekly and the developing nations are also following the same trend.

In India the official working hours in a week are 48 hours in the government sector and the organized sectors. The reasons for working longer than the stipulated time can be many. But one of the reasons behind this is to earn some extra money by doing overtime to supplement the wage earned after working for regular working hours, and one more reason for working extra hours is to get ahead at a faster pace in the organization.

The study done by Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, followed the analysis of twelve studies dating back as far as 1958, and involving 22,000 people all over the world, and found that the people working more than the traditional working hours i.e. eight hours a day have 40 to 80 per cent greater risk of heart disease.

Dr Marianna Virtanen, who lead the research, said that the increase in the rate of heart diseases in people working for extra hours can be due to prolonged exposure to stress. The other triggers can be untimely eating or poor eating habits, lack of leisure time to exercise, lack of physical activity and increased levels of cortisole (stress hormone).

The other consequences related to this can be poor functioning of the brain in middle aged workers who work for about 55 hours in a week. The longest hours of work in Europe are 42.7 a week, and in Germany it is 42 hours.