Only one hour more work hurts the health

Effects on health: Longer working hours can make us sick

A recent study has shown that even increasing the weekly working hours by one hour is detrimental to health. This small increase is enough for workers to rate their own condition worse and go to the doctor much more frequently.

Rising workload

For many people, the stress on the job increases. That endangers the health. Too much stress makes us sick, experts warn. Above all, long working hours are a problem. For example, experts have been pointing out for years that more than 40 working hours per week are harmful to health. What workers can do too is when working hours increase. This has now been shown in a study by researchers from two German universities.

German researchers were able to show in a study that longer working hours can damage the health. Already an hour more per week can be associated with negative effects. (Image: Rido / fotolia.com)

Increased risk especially for women

Those who work too long endanger their health. As a result, increases the risk of stroke, as an international research team reported.

Long hours, especially for women, are a health risk, according to a US study. With more than 40 hours per week, their risk of heart disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes increases significantly.

In addition, it will be problematic for both sexes - but especially for women - if they have to work longer: If the weekly working hours increase even by an hour, that can make people worried.

This small growth is sufficient that employees in the public service evaluate their own health worse and go to the doctor much more often.

This is the result of a study by scientists from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), which was recently published in the journal "Labor Economics".

Relationship between working hours and health

The German researchers' study is one of the first to examine the relationship between increasing weekly working hours and health outcomes.

"Descriptive analyzes often show a positive correlation between health and working hours, for example, when healthier people also work longer," says Prof. Dr. med. Christoph Wunder from the MLU in a message.

The Halle economist, who works with Dr. med. Kamila Cygan-Rehm from the FAU said that little is known about the causal effects of increasing working hours on people's health.

"Demonstrating a causal influence of longer working hours on health is empirically very difficult, as one must exclude unobserved factors - such as inner motivation - that can lead to both longer working hours and better health, thus distorting the direct causal effect "Said Dr. Kamila Cygan-Rehm of the FAU.

Women and families with young children especially affected

To shed more light on this connection, the scientists evaluated the data from the Socio-Economic Panel from 1985 to 2014.

It is reported to be the largest and longest-running long-term study in which more than 12,000 households have been interviewed on a regular basis about their living conditions for more than 30 years.

For example, SOEP data provides information on education, health, income, employment and life satisfaction.

"Because the same people are interviewed each year for the SOEP, it can also track long-term trends and responses to external changes, such as working hours," Wunder said.

The two researchers found that even an hour's gain had significant consequences: Respondents' self-rated health dropped by two percent, while the number of doctor visits increased by 13 percent.

Women and families with young children were particularly affected by these negative effects.

"Presumably, the effects on these groups are stronger because they have very limited time budgets outside their working hours. Increases the working time, thus increasing the time pressure outside of work, "said Wunder.

No statements about an optimal working time

According to the University Communication, the study only included data from employees from the old Länder employed or employed as civil servants.

"Civil servants tend to adopt weekly work arrangements rather than private workers, who, for example, can adjust overtime if the standard working hours change to keep weekly working hours constant. Public sector employees have less flexibility here, "Wunder explained.

In the years 1985 to 1991, the weekly working hours initially fell from 40 to 38.5 hours. Later, she rose again in Bavaria and Hesse for officials up to 42 hours per week. In the new federal states, these strong fluctuations did not exist.

Although no statements can be made about optimal working hours from the study, it also provides an insight into the consequences that even a small change can have. (Ad)