Long-working women with significantly higher diabetes risk

How do stress and hard work affect the risk of diabetes??

Unfortunately, diabetes affects more and more people worldwide. Certain factors in our lifestyle, such as our working hours, influence the likelihood of developing diabetes. Researchers have now found that women who have long working hours are at an increased risk of developing diabetes.

Researchers at the Institute for Work & Health, Toronto, have found that women who work at least 45 hours a week are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal "BMJ Diabetes Research & Care".

Long working hours in men reduce the risk of diabetes

For their study, the experts examined over 7,065 workers between the ages of 35 and 74 years. This research now for the first time analyzed the impact of working hours on diabetes risk for both genders. The results were in some ways amazing: working longer than 45 hours a week reduces their risk of diabetes. But when women work 45 hours or more, the risk of developing diabetes increases by 63 percent. This is presumably linked to the fact that female employees still manage most of the household outside their working hours, study author Dr. Mahee Gilbert-Ouimet.

Men do not help much in the household

The results could be the same for men if they were in similar positions and would also have to do a lot of household chores, the experts explain. Most men would get paid better and tend to occupy higher positions, but they do not help much in the household. Gilbert-Ouimet added. Such results were to be expected because women still take twice as much responsibility for the family compared to men, the researcher continues. Better pay and better positions at work could help reduce the risk of diabetes for women. Especially if the husbands would help more in the household.

439 million people with diabetes in 2030?

Worldwide it is expected that the adult diabetes rate will increase by about 50 percent to 439 million by 2030. There is an urgent need to develop effective measures to prevent diabetes. The risk of diabetes could also be due to stress reducing insulin resistance.

Participants were assigned to different groups

Subjects were divided into four groups based on weekly working hours including unpaid hours (eg, housework). Members in the groups were assigned a pooled working time of 15 to 34 hours, 35 to 40 hours, 41 to 44 hours and 45 or more hours. Researchers also considered factors such as age, sex, race, marital status, existing children, place of residence, activity, physical activity, type of work, health issues, and lifestyle factors.

Men were more likely to suffer from diabetes

Over the course of twelve years, ten percent of the subjects developed type 2 diabetes. Men, overweight people and the elderly accounted for most of the diagnoses. However, male diagnoses were rarely due to work. When men worked longer, they were more likely to be at risk for diabetes.

Further research is needed

When women work 45 or more hours a week, the chance of developing diabetes was 63 percent higher compared to women who worked 35 to 40 hours a week. However, this percentage decreased when the physicians screened high-volume alcohol from women with overweight, smokers and consumers. Nevertheless, the risk remained significantly elevated (45 percent). Further research will now clarify whether working longer hours in conjunction with housework can make women drink more, smoke, and eat too much, potentially aggravating their risk, Dr. Gilbert-Ouimet. (As)