And the longer hours people worked, the higher their stroke risk, the study found. Compared to those who worked a standard number of hours per week, the risk of stroke was 10 percent higher among those who worked 41 to 48 hours and 27 percent higher among those who worked 49 to 54 hours.
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“At the same time, people that have more stress because of longer working hours, there’s a correlation with increased alcohol consumption and potentially increased incidence of cigarette smoking”.
It found that those who work 55 hours or more per week have a one-third greater risk of stroke compared with those who work a standard week.
The researchers also speculate that those who work long hours are more likely to unwind with a cocktail, and heavy drinking is a known risk factor for stroke.
“The pooling of all available studies on this topic allowed us to investigate the association between working hours and cardiovascular disease risk with greater precision than has previously been possible”, said Professor Mika Kivimaki of University College London, the lead author of the study.
Even the odd extra hour-or-two could have a detrimental affect.
“Sudden death from overwork is often caused by stroke and is believed to result from a repetitive triggering of the stress response”, they write. The volunteers told researchers how many hours they worked per week. The five previous published studies on long working hours and coronary heart disease comprised 15,000 participants.
“Health professionals should be aware that working long hours is associated with a significantly increased risk of stroke, and perhaps also coronary heart disease.” [1].
This is the largest study in this field so far, involving 600,000 individuals. “Long working hours are not a negligible occurrence”.
The scientists suggest that as well as stress, unhealthy behaviours such as physical inactivity and high alcohol consumption might be involved.
Working long hours can greatly increase your risk of suffering a stroke – with 55 hours putting you in the danger zone.
Dr Tim Chico, consultant cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said: ‘For many people, reducing their working hours would be hard or impossible, and this study does not show that it would reduce the risk of stroke.
Among the 36 nations that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, almost 13 percent of workers put in at least 50 hours per week.
“Although some countries have legislation for working hours – eg, the EU Working Time Directive gives people the right to limit their average working time to 48 hours per week – it is not always implemented”.
Those who spend longer at work were also more likely to develop heart disease.
Dr Shamim Quadir, Research Communications Manager at the Stroke Association, said the “important study” underlined how important a healthy lifestyle was in preventing a stroke.
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The average Briton works 36.7 hours per week, six hours more than people in the Netherlands. For starters, people who spend more time behind a desk have less time to be physically active.
