Overtime favor depression

Overtime favors the onset of depressive illness

26/01/2012

Most employers require their employees to work overtime in times of good order books. If employees have to work longer hours due to a lack of personnel policies or savings, it can lead to mental disorders such as severe depression. This was discovered by British and Finnish scientists in a study by College University London and the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Helsinki. According to the report, overtime not only damages employees, but also employers who have to take operational measures due to longer illness failures.

The most common mental disorders include depressive disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently predicted that depression will be among the most prevalent diseases in Western industrialized countries by 2030. Along with this, depression will provoke most sick days in the future, raising the question of the causes. An international research consortium suspects that the increasing workload is partly responsible for this.

Long-term study with employees in British authorities
If employees have to work overtime for an extended period of time each day, severe depression can result. This resulted in a long-term study with around 2,000 British officials. Employees had to work three to four hours more each day than usual, and the likelihood of major depression increased significantly over employees without overtime. This is reported by the research team around Marianna Virtanen from University College London and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Medicine in Helsinki in the scientific journal „Plos One“.

A total of 1,626 men and 497 women participated in the study. The average age of participants was 47 years. The subjects were observed between 3.8 and 7.2 years. Eleven percent of those observed had to work eleven hours a day or more. Prior to the actual beginning of the study, it was excluded by means of a survey and examination that the employees suffered from mental illness in order not to falsify the result.

Double the probability of depression in overtime
66 employees (3.1 percent) developed severe depression during the study. There were 38 out of the 1105 workers with 7 to 8 hours of daily work and 10 of the 227 subjects with 11 to 12 daily working hours. In the data analysis, the influence of other factors such as lack of exercise or lack of nutrition was excluded. As a result, it could be proven that the risk of manifest depression was twice as high for the hard worker than for normal workers.

Although you can „have occasional overtime benefits for the individual and the society“ explain the researchers in the study report, but it is „important to stress that excessive working hours are also associated with an increased risk of major depression.“ This has to be taken into account when employees have to constantly work overtime. However, the scientists around study leader Marianna Virtanen can not „explain plausibly“, Why depression is more common among overtime workers, however, other research shows that „Lots of time in the job disturbs the family life and stirs up conflicts“. People experience less relaxation and recovery periods between workdays, which in turn leads to more „Stress hormones in the blood“ can produce.

The data collection comes from the so-called „Whitehall II study“, which started in London in 1985 and involves around 10,000 employees of British authorities. Basically, these participants are considered healthier compared to the average total population. The rate of solidified depression is on average 3.1 percent lower than other studies of the normal population. Here, the rate of depression is around five percent, the scientists explain.

Further studies in other fields of work necessary
Further research is needed, for example, on workers in factories or in the private service sector. In addition, there are studies that come in the detection of depressive disorders on other results. The problem is that it is not clearly defined in the nature from which time of overtime can be spoken.

Higher cardiac risk in overtime
Already in 2010, the same researchers published a study that indicates that overtime increases the likelihood of cardiovascular disease. It has been found that employees working in British agencies who work more than 11 to 12 hours a day have a 60 percent higher risk of having a heart attack. The increased risk rate was shown, although other factors such as unhealthy diet, smoking or lack of exercise were previously excluded. There were also executives among the 6000 participants. It turned out that the position or working environment has a positive effect when freedom of choice plays a major role. The more positive the environment and the more opportunities for development, the lower the risk for coronary heart disease. (Sb)

Read about:
Overtime is bad for the heart
Recreational Illness: How Leisure Can Cause Illness
Depression provokes strokes
Stress at work increases heart attack risk

Picture: Gerd Altmann