A prospective study on the relationship between long work hours and hypertension

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We conducted a 5-year prospective study to compare the risk of incident hypertension among participants grouped according to their average monthly overtime work hours. A total of 1,316 normotensive male workers aged 20-55 years in a manufacturing factory in Japan were enrolled. Overtime workers of ≧80.0hr/month had a slightly higher risk for incident hypertension without statistical significance, compared with the other workers. In addition, we compared the means of change in blood pressure after a year from the baseline survey to the second survey. Overtime workers of ≧80.0hr/month had a non-significantly, marginally greater increase in blood pressure, compared with the other workers. Such extensive overtime blue-collar workers had a significantly further increased diastolic blood pressure. Regulation of work hour is important for the primary prevention and management of hypertension. However, occupational factors may have affected the relationship between overtime work hours and blood pressure.