Long working hours and change in body weight: analysis of individual-participant data from 19 cohort studiesDepartment of Public Health, Clinicum, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Public Health, Clinicum, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
IPSY, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Louvain-la-Neuve & School of Public Health, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland.
Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
IPSY, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Louvain-la-Neuve & School of Public Health, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden.
Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Public Health, Clinicum, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Public Health, Clinicum, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland.
Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Department of Public Health, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
Department of Public Health, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Public Health, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Public Health, Clinicum, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
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2020 (English)In: International Journal of Obesity, ISSN 0307-0565, E-ISSN 1476-5497, Vol. 44, no 6, p. 1368-1375Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Objective:
To examine the relation between long working hours and change in body mass index (BMI).
Methods:
We performed random effects meta-analyses using individual-participant data from 19 cohort studies from Europe, US and Australia (n = 122,078), with a mean of 4.4-year follow-up. Working hours were measured at baseline and categorised as part time (<35 h/week), standard weekly hours (35–40 h, reference), 41–48 h, 49–54 h and ≥55 h/week (long working hours). There were four outcomes at follow-up: (1) overweight/obesity (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) or (2) overweight (BMI 25–29.9 kg/m2) among participants without overweight/obesity at baseline; (3) obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) among participants with overweight at baseline, and (4) weight loss among participants with obesity at baseline.
Results:
Of the 61,143 participants without overweight/obesity at baseline, 20.2% had overweight/obesity at follow-up. Compared with standard weekly working hours, the age-, sex- and socioeconomic status-adjusted relative risk (RR) of overweight/obesity was 0.95 (95% CI 0.90–1.00) for part-time work, 1.07 (1.02–1.12) for 41–48 weekly working hours, 1.09 (1.03–1.16) for 49–54 h and 1.17 (1.08–1.27) for long working hours (P for trend <0.0001). The findings were similar after multivariable adjustment and in subgroup analyses. Long working hours were associated with an excess risk of shift from normal weight to overweight rather than from overweight to obesity. Long working hours were not associated with weight loss among participants with obesity.
Conclusions:
This analysis of large individual-participant data suggests a small excess risk of overweight among the healthy-weight people who work long hours.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2020. Vol. 44, no 6, p. 1368-1375
National Category
Nutrition and Dietetics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-46989DOI: 10.1038/s41366-019-0480-3ISI: 000539467600017PubMedID: 31767974Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85075470775Local ID: HOA HHJ 2020 ;HHJADULTIS, HHJARNISOAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-46989DiVA, id: diva2:1375713
2019-12-052019-12-052020-07-17Bibliographically approved