Long working hours in office are hazardous to health, research says

People who spend too much time in the office often face the problem of high blood pressure, including disguised, newsmedical.net reported.

Specialists from the University of Laval (Canada) studied the work regime and health status of more than 3,500 employees of three public institutions in Quebec. They compared the blood pressure of people who work more than 40 hours a week with the pressure of those who work for about 35 hours.

As it turned out, with 49 or more hours a week, the likelihood of masked hypertension increased by 70%. In such people, the disease is not fixed during episodic visits to the doctor, and they think that they do not have hypertension. However, their high pressure can be determined with constant monitoring. According to the study, the risk of a clinical diagnosis of hypertension with this mode of operation increased by 66%, and with 41 and 48 hours a week - by 54% and 42%, respectively.

Scientists also took into account such variables as work load, age, gender, educational level, occupation, smoking, body mass index and other health factors.

"Both masked and sustained high blood pressure are linked to higher cardiovascular disease risk. The observed associations accounted for job strain, a work stressor defined as a combination of high work demands and low decision-making authority. However, other related stressors might have an impact. Future research could examine whether family responsibilities - such as a worker's number of children, household duties and childcare role - might interact with work circumstances to explain high blood pressure," said Xavier Trudel, Ph.D., study lead author assistant professor in the social and preventive medicine department at Laval University in Quebec, Canada