A new study has found that overtime work boosts the risk for cardiovascular problems by 67 percent. The researchers studied 7,095 British civil service workers and found that those who spend 11 or more hours per day while working had a 67 percent higher risk of coronary heart disease than those who follow normal 8 hour routine.
"We knew there was an association between working long hours and coronary heart disease, but we were really surprised that it was such a strong predictor," said Mika Kivimaki, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London and lead author of the study. The findings of the study were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Currently, the risk for heart disease is calculated on the basis of age, gender, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and tobacco use. But according to Kivimaki, the addition of the overtime into the mix boosted the predictive value of the risk calculator by 4.7 percent. According to the American Heart Association, coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, is caused by a build-up of fatty plaques (atherosclerosis) inside the blood vessels that are connected to the heart.
"What we cannot say is that the long hours cause coronary heart disease," Kivimaki said, adding, "It could be other things related to working long hours. If you work very long hours for a long time it clearly seems to be associated with an increased risk of sleep problems and depression and other adverse effects that can also affect physical heath."
