MONDAY, June 16 (HealthDay News) -- Employees who work overtime are at increased risk of anxiety and depression, according to the results of a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Elisabeth Kleppa, M.D., of the University of Bergen in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues conducted a study of 1,350 overtime workers, using a standard screening questionnaire to compare their levels of anxiety and depression with those of 9,092 employees who were not working overtime. The study also compared the anxiety and depression levels of male employees doing a moderate amount of overtime (working 41 to 48 hours a week) and those doing a lot of overtime (working 49 to 100 hours a week).
Anxiety and depression levels were significantly higher for both men and women working overtime versus those not working overtime, and the overtime group also had higher prevalences of anxiety and depressive disorders, the investigators found. Whereas the questionnaire scores for men working normal hours indicated that approximately 9 percent of them had possible depression, the figure was 12.5 percent for overtime workers. Similarly, overtime increased the prevalence of possible depression from 7 percent to 11 percent in women, the report indicates.
"Long work hours also reduce the time left for family and social activities," the authors write. "The impact of overtime work on mental health may possibly be mediated by reduced quantity of important relationships."
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