Long Work Weeks Associated With Increased Risk of Anxiety and Depression

How many hours do you work in a given week? Statistics show that the average American works for roughly 34.4 hours per week. Of course, some people work even longer, pulling 50 or more hours per week. While clocking overtime may sound enticing, though, you should consider its health effects. There's new evidence suggesting that working long work weeks increases the risk of several health conditions, including anxiety, depression, ADHD and even diabetes.

Published in the medical journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, the study focused on more than 7,000 Canadians, all of whom were followed for 12 years as researchers paid close attention to their work habits and health. At the end of the study, researchers found that women who worked at least 45 hours per week were 63% more likely to develop diabetes than women who worked 40 hours or less.

Now, some people might assume that lifestyle choices -- smoking or alcohol consumption -- affected these results. Researchers said, however, that the diabetes-inducing effects of long work weeks was only slightly reduced when factors like smoking, lack of exercise and alcohol consumption were accounted for. 

So, how did men fare in this study? Surprisingly, researchers found that men who worked 45 hours or more. Researchers said that it's unclear why male workers aren't as effected by long work weeks as their female counterparts. However, some believe that it could be attributed to the elevated stress of women, given that many perform unpaid work at home like household chores.

"If you think about all the unpaid work they do on their off-hours, like household chores for example, they simply do more than men, and that can be stressful, and stress negatively impacts your health," said one of the study's co-authors.

This isn't the first study suggesting that long work weeks are bad for your health. Research has shown that people who work more than 40 hours per week have increased rates of ADHD, depression and anxiety as well.

The bottom line is that everyone, whether man or woman, needs to take a more proactive approach towards balancing personal health and work. Clocking more than 40 hours in a week will fatten your paycheck, but it doesn't come without cost -- and that cost is your health. You have to consider the long-term effects of long work weeks and whether or not it's worth it. In most cases, the negative health effects attributed with long work weeks negates the nominal financial benefits of overtime pay.