The effect of long working hours on cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease; A case‐crossover study

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the relationship between weekly working hours and the occurrence of cerebro-cardiovascular diseases using a case-crossover study design. METHODS: We investigated average working hours during the 7 days before the onset of illness (hazard period) and average weekly working hours between 8 days and 3 months before the onset of cerebro-cardiovascular diseases (control period) for 1,042 cases from the workers' compensation database for 2009. RESULTS: Among all subjects, the odds ratio by conditional logistic regression for the risk of cerebro-cardiovascular diseases with a 10 hr increase in average weekly working hours was 1.45 (95% confidence interval CI: 1.22-1.72), a significant association. CONCLUSIONS: An increase in average weekly working hours may trigger the onset of cerebro-cardiovascular disease. Am. J. Ind. Med. 60:753-761, 2017. © 2017. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.