TORONTO, July 4 — New Canadian research has found that women who work 45 or more hours a week may have a higher risk of developing diabetes than those who work less.
Carried out by researchers at the Centre de recherche FRQS du CHU de Québec, the Institute for Work & Health, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, St Michael’s Hospital, Université Laval, and the University of Toronto, along with Monash University, Australia, the new study followed 7,065 Canadian workers between the ages of 35 and 74 for a period of 12 years.
The team tracked participants’ health using national health survey data and medical records, and also took into account other potentially influencing factors such as age, sex, marital status, ethnicity, any long term health conditions, and weight (BMI).
Participants’ weekly working hours, both paid and unpaid, were categorised into four groups; 15-34 hours; 35-40 hours; 41-44 hours; and 45 or more hours, and workplace factors, such as shift work, the number of weeks worked in the preceding 12 months, and whether the job was primarily active or sedentary were also recorded.
None of the participants had a diagnosis of diabetes at the beginning of the study, but during the monitoring period one in 10 participants developed type 2 diabetes, with the team finding that diagnoses were more common among men, older participants, and those with obesity.
However, the team also found that for women, working more hours significantly increased the risk of developing diabetes. The results showed that those who worked 45 or more hours a week had a 63 per cent higher risk than women who worked between 35 and 40 hours.
The researchers suggest that sticking to this amount of working hours might help curb the risk of the disease.
However, no association was found between working hours and diabetes in men, and if anything the more hours a man worked, the more his risk of the condition dropped.
As an observational study, the researchers noted that no conclusions about cause and effect can be made.
They also were unable to explain the gender difference found in the study, although they did suggest that women might work longer hours in part due to household chores and family responsibilities, which could prompt a chronic stress response in the body, increasing the risk of hormonal abnormalities and insulin resistance.
“Considering the rapid and substantial increase of diabetes prevalence in Canada and worldwide, identifying modifiable risk factors such as long work hours is of major importance to improve prevention and orient policy making, as it could prevent numerous cases of diabetes and diabetes related chronic diseases,” they conclude.
The results can be found published online in the journal BMJ Diabetes Research & Care. — AFP-Relaxnews
