After spending late night after late night at the office, we’ve all gotten the inevitable talking to, “This job is killing you.” We think of it as just our loved ones watching out for us, but as it turns out, there is some truth to the saying. According to a new scientific study, there’s an association between long working hours and strokes.
The study was undertaken by a group of researchers led by Marc Fadel, that looked at stroke risk for adults in France. Specifically, the group studied the effect of “long work hours” (LWH) on health.
The study defined LWH as working more than 10 hours daily for at least 50 days per year. That breaks down to having just one 10 our day per week on average throughout the year.
About 150,000 participants were analyzed as part of the study and about 0.9% of those included had a stroke during the time period covered. Overall, long work hours increased the overall risk of stroke by 29%, even after adjusting for age, gender, blood pressure, family history, and smoking habits.
LWH were associated with strokes, especially among those exposed to LWH for 10 years or more. Younger people had a higher risk of stroke when exposed to LWH for >10 years. Therefore, the large-scale analysis revealed a significant association between exposure to LWH for a period of 10 years or more and history of stroke.
Strokes are often the cause of death when it comes to over working. In Japan, 60% of compensated Karoshi (death from overwork) cases died of stroke.
