Health & Medicine
The Longer You Work, the More You Drink
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Jan 15, 2015 09:42 AM EST
It turns out that the longer your work, the more likely you are to drink. Scientists have discovered that employees who work more than 48 hours per week are more likely to engage in risky alcohol consumption than those who work standard weeks.
Risky alcohol consumption is considered as more than 14 drinks per week for women and more than 21 drinks per week for men. This excess is believed to increase the risk of liver diseases, cancer, stroke, coronary heart disease and mental disorders.
Previous research has found a link between working longer hours and risky alcohol consumption, but this only involved small studies. That's why researchers decided to conduct the first systematic analysis on the association between long working hours and alcohol use.
The scientists conducted cross sectional analysis of 33,693 people in 14 countries. They found that longer working hours increased the likelihood of higher alcohol use by 11 percent. In addition, a prospective analysis found a similar increase in risk of 12 percent for onset of risky alcohol use in 100,602 people from 9 countries.
Individual participant data from 18 prospective studies also showed that those who worked 49 to 54 hours and 55 hours per week or more had an increased risk of 13 percent and 12 percent respectively of risky alcohol consumption compared with those who worked 35 to 40 hours per week.
"The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population are employed," write the researchers in a news release. "Further research is needed to assess whether preventative interventions against risk alcohol use could benefit from information on working hours."
The findings are published in two studies here and here in the journal BMJ.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
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First Posted: Jan 15, 2015 09:42 AM EST
It turns out that the longer your work, the more likely you are to drink. Scientists have discovered that employees who work more than 48 hours per week are more likely to engage in risky alcohol consumption than those who work standard weeks.
Risky alcohol consumption is considered as more than 14 drinks per week for women and more than 21 drinks per week for men. This excess is believed to increase the risk of liver diseases, cancer, stroke, coronary heart disease and mental disorders.
Previous research has found a link between working longer hours and risky alcohol consumption, but this only involved small studies. That's why researchers decided to conduct the first systematic analysis on the association between long working hours and alcohol use.
The scientists conducted cross sectional analysis of 33,693 people in 14 countries. They found that longer working hours increased the likelihood of higher alcohol use by 11 percent. In addition, a prospective analysis found a similar increase in risk of 12 percent for onset of risky alcohol use in 100,602 people from 9 countries.
Individual participant data from 18 prospective studies also showed that those who worked 49 to 54 hours and 55 hours per week or more had an increased risk of 13 percent and 12 percent respectively of risky alcohol consumption compared with those who worked 35 to 40 hours per week.
"The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population are employed," write the researchers in a news release. "Further research is needed to assess whether preventative interventions against risk alcohol use could benefit from information on working hours."
The findings are published in two studies here and here in the journal BMJ.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone